Kaitlyn Airy is a Korean American poet and essayist.

Her debut poetry collection, Braid The Dark Hair She Gave You, was selected by Victoria Chang as the winner of the Poetic Justice Institute Award and is forthcoming from Fordham University Press in Fall 2027. Her work explores international and transracial adoption, American labor, The Korean War and the rupture that continues in its wake. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she was raised in the San Juan Archipelago off the coast of Washington State. In Spring 2020, her poem “Demilitarized Zone” was selected by Elizabeth Austen as the winner of the Phyllis L. Ennes Contest, sponsored by the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. In 2022 Narrative Magazine named her one of their 30 Below 30. She is a 2026 Hedgebrook Writer-in-residence. Her recent work has been featured or is forthcoming in FENCE, Crab Creek Review, Poets.org, Moss, Post Road, Poetry Northwest, and The Kenyon Review. She received an MFA in poetry from the University of Virginia, where she currently teaches creative writing and composition courses in her role as Lecturer. In her spare time she enjoys consulting the oracle, tracking down patches of ghostpipes, and experimenting with fermentation.

Photo credit: Vincent James Perrone