Publications
Erin L. McCoy’s debut novel, Underlake, is forthcoming from Doubleday in 2026.
Her debut poetry collection, Wrecks, will be published by Noemi Press in October 2025 and was a finalist for the Noemi Book Award.
Wrecks forthcoming in 2025
My first book, Wrecks, is forthcoming from Noemi Press in October 2025 and was a finalist for the Noemi Book Awards.
Literary Journals & Anthologies.
Virginia Quarterly Review: “Uncanny Valley [“Pink millions …”], “The researcher (2020) dreams of Shanawdithit (1828),” “Exhibit A: Eldey Island, Iceland, 1844.” Forthcoming in 2025.
The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders, Poets for Science, print anthology: “great auk in the afterlife”; digital anthology: “Exhibit D: Funk Island, Newfoundland, 1863,” “Guanahaní,” “Migration,” and “Song alongside.” 2025.
American Poetry Review: “The art of syntax” and “Incredible magic.” March/April 2024.
Seventh Wave: “Translation,” “Uncanny valley,” “Primorskaya,” and “Self-portrait skinning twenty-three auks.” Winter 2023.
Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets’ Anthology (Sarabande Books, 2023), edited by Joy Priest: “witch-auk & me stop over in my hometown.”
Best New Poets 2021, edited by Kaveh Akbar: “How a lake flash-froze a herd of horses.”
West Branch: “when we are found we will be fused.” Selected by guest editor Joy Priest. 2021.
Poet Lore: “great auk in the afterlife.” Summer/Fall 2021. Selected by Tarfia Faizullah for the “Surrealism and Strangeness” folio.
Narrative: “Innocence,” “On Inertia,” “Self-portrait as a plague doctor,” and “Falls of the Ohio.” May 2021.
“Woods”: Finalist for the Missouri Review’s 2021 Miller Audio Prize and featured on the Miller Aud-Cast (February 2021). Learn more + listen to the poem.
“Coin,” a short story in Conjunctions, Fall 2020.
“How a lake flash-froze a herd of horses,” second place in the 2019–2020 Rougarou Poetry Contest, judged by CAConrad.
“Homecoming” and “Detached objects” in Nat Brut., as part of the journal’s Reclamation and Restoration: A Folio Redefining the Conversation about the South (October 2019).
“‘Memoir of the late John Wolley,’ by Alfred Newton” and “Notice of an Ice-carried Boulder at Borgholm,” two poems from my manuscript, Wrecks (previously called Uncanny Valley), in Nimrod International Journal (Spring/Summer 2019).
• “On the Recrystallization of Fallen Snow,” a poem from my manuscript, Wrecks, in Beloit Poetry Journal (Fall 2018).
• Six poems in the inaugural issue of COAST|noCOAST (Fall 2018). Learn about my reading at the Seattle Art Museum with COAST|noCOAST.
• “Futures,” selected by Natalie Diaz for inclusion in the Best New Poets 2017 anthology. Learn more.
• “Stepmother” in Cimarron Review (Fall 2017, 50th Anniversary Issue). Learn more.
• “Diagnostic screenings and systematic review for CO toxicity, schizophrenia, and personality disorder” in the Bombay Gin (Spring 2018). Learn more.
• “Torches” & “Mandan, North Dakota” in Bennington Review (Fall/Winter 2017). Read “Mandan, North Dakota” here and learn more about these poems here.
• “Sojourn” & “On Airports” in Pleiades (Summer 2017).
• “The Milky Way in California” in Far Off Places (forthcoming, Spring 2018).
• “Memorials” & “Bardstown (No. 3)” in the Lampeter Review, December 2016.
• “Campers,” “Our Monster,” & “Figurine Work,” published in CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art & Action, Fall 2014.
• “Peaceable Creatures,” published in the Tusculum Review, April 2014.
• “Bird Attack at Blank Point,” published in DIAGRAM, May 2011.
Seventh Wave senior poetry editor Emilie Menzel reflects on Erin L. McCoy’s portfolio of poems.
Translation.
Erin is acquisitions editor for Entre Ríos Books, where she selects Argentine poets for publication. Learn more.
Collaborated on the translation of Palabra desierta/Desert Word, a book of poems by Francisco Romano Pérez (Abra Pampa Éditions, Paris 2015).
Awards.
“How a lake flash-froze a herd of horses,” selected for the Best New Poets 2021 anthology by Kaveh Akbar
“Woods”: Finalist for the Missouri Review’s 2021 Miller Audio Prize and featured on the Miller Aud-Cast (February 2021). Learn more + listen to the poem.
“How a lake flash-froze a herd of horses,” second place in the 2019–2020 Rougarou Poetry Contest, judged by CAConrad
“Futures,” selected by Natalie Diaz for inclusion in the Best New Poets 2017 anthology
Finalist, Baltic Writing Residencies residency in London, 2020
Kentucky Writers’ Fellowship, Baltic Writing Residencies, 2019
Joan Grayston Poetry Prize, University of Washington, 2017
The University of Washington’s Grace Milliman Pollock Scholarship (2016-2017)
Oakley Hall III Memorial Scholarship to attend the Community of Writers in Squaw Valley, California (Summer 2016)
Summer Literary Seminars Unified Literary Contest, finalist, 3 years in a row in poetry & fiction: 2010, 2011, 2012
Fulbright Fellowship: Teaching Assistantship in Malaysia (2009)
The University of Louisville Creative Writing Scholarship (2007)
Critical Languages Scholarship for Russian: St. Petersburg (2007)
Education.
MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry, University of Washington
MA in Hispanic Studies, University of Washington
BA in Spanish, minors in French & Russian Studies, University of Louisville