Ailish Hopper,  a DC native, is author of Dark~Sky Society (2014), a runner-up for the New Issues prize, and the chapbook, Bird in the Head (2005), selected for the Center for Book Arts Prize. Her poems have appeared in APR, Blackbird, Harvard Review Online, Ploughshares, Poetry, Tidal Basin Review, and her essays on poetry and racism have appeared in Boston Review, The Volta, and, A Sense of Regard: Essays on Poetry and Race. In addition to page poetry, Hopper also performs in the band Heroes are Gang Leaders, whose first album is a tribute to Amiri Baraka.  She teaches at Goucher College.

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