About

Born and raised in Pierre, South Dakota, poet and educator, Kara Olson earned a BA at The University of Minnesota and an MFA from Warren Wilson’s Program for Writers.

Kara's poetry has been recognized through various honors, including receiving the 2026 McKnight Fellowship for Writers, The Sewanee Review poetry prize for her poem "Last Night," selected by Donika Kelly, and a Jerome Foundation-supported residency at the Anderson Center. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Massachusetts Review, Third Coast, and other publications. Her debut manuscript, The Order of Blooming, was a finalist for the 2025 National Poetry Series and the 2025 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize. Her second collection, The Light Between Us, was a finalist for the 2026 Trio Award with Trio House Press.

She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a professor of English at North Hennepin Community College, where she has worked for over a decade to advance educational equity and co-learn with students pursuing both academic success and meaningful self-expression. The task she asks of her students is vulnerable: to translate the ideas they read, and the language inside themselves, onto the page. Honoring this vulnerability in her students, and in herself, is a pillar of her teaching and writing philosophy.