Holly Karapetkova

Holly Karapetkova holds an MFA in creative writing from Georgia State University and a PhD in English and comparative literature from the University of Cincinnati.

Karapetkova is the author of three poetry collections: Dear Empire (Gunpowder Press), winner of the 2025 William Meredith Prize for Poetry; Towline (Cloudbank Books, 2016), winner of the Vern Rutsala Book Prize; and Words We Might One Day Say (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 2010), winner of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House Prize for Poetry. She is also the translator of Pieces, a collection of poetry and prose by Irene Ivantcheva, and Odysseus, a play by Alexander Sekulov.

The recipient of a fellowship from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Karapetkova lives in Arlington, Virginia, where she serves as the city’s poet laureate and teaches literature and writing at Marymount University. In 2022, Karapetkova received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.