January Gill O’Neil

January Gill O’Neil was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and received a BA from Old Dominion University and an MFA from New York University.

O’Neil is the author of Glitter Road (CavanKerry Press, 2024), which received the 2024 Poetry by the Sea Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize; Rewilding (CavanKerry Press, 2018), recognized by Mass Center for the Book as a notable poetry collection for 2018; Misery Islands (CavanKerry Press, 2014), winner of a 2015 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence; and Underlife (CavanKerry Press, 2009).

The recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, O’Neil was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant and was named the John and Renée Grisham Writer in Residence for 2019–20 at the University of Mississippi, Oxford.

O’Neil is a professor of English at Salem State University. She is a former chair of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) board of directors, where she is a long-serving board member. She lives in Beverly, Massachusetts.