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 2026-2027 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.