Abigail Carl-Klassen is a poet, writer, educator, nonprofit professional, translator, and activist. Raised in the oil fields of rural west Texas, she relocated to the U.S.-Mexico border in the early 2000s where she has worked for many years in El Paso in community development and public education.
Her most recent poetry collection, Village Mechanics, is forthcoming from FlowerSong Press and her chapbook, A’int Country Like You, which explores the intersections of race, culture, and class in rural spaces, is available now from Digging Press.
She has directed two oral history projects, Rebels, Exiles, and Bridge Builders: 30 Stories of Courage, Struggle and Triumph from the Tres Culturas Region of Chihuahua, Mexico and Punto de Partida: Immigrants, Asylum Seekers, and Hospitality in the El Paso/Juarez Borderland, and was a finalist for the 2021 Maverick Poet Award from the ruth weiss foundation.
She earned an MFA from the University of Texas El Paso’s Bilingual Creative Writing and her work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Catapult, Willow Springs, Cimarron Review, Guernica, Aster(ix), Kweli, Huizache, and Post Road, among others, and is anthologized in IMANIMAN: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands (Aunt Lute), Texas Poetry Calendar, (Kallisto Gaia Press), and New Border Voices (Texas A&M University Press).
Inquiries for readings, workshops, or professional writing services can be sent to acarlklassen@gmail.com.
Abigail Carl-Klassen 