Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Abby E. Murray (they/them) has moved around the country and taught writing from/in Colorado, Georgia, Alaska, New York, Washington DC and Washington state, where they served as the 2019-2021 Poet Laureate for the city of Tacoma. Their first book, Hail and Farewell, won the Perugia Press Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Previous chapbooks include How to Be Married after Iraq (Finishing Line Press, 2018), Quick Draw: Poems from a Soldier’s Wife (Finishing Line Press, 2012) and Me and Coyote (Lost Horse Books, 2010).
Photo by Jennifer L. Miller
In 2016, Abby launched Collateral, a literary journal publishing work concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone. They earned an MFA in Writing from Pacific University (Oregon) and their Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University (New York).
They teach rhetoric in military strategy, a writing course for U.S. Army War College fellows, at the University of Washington in Seattle, as well as poetry workshops in community centers, coffee shops, military posts, detention centers, shelters, assisted living facilities, virtual forums, and schools. Many of their recent publications are accessible online, and you can search for them here. Their poem “Asking for a Friend” won the Rhino Founder’s Prize in 2018, and in 2024, their poem “Self Portrait as Coriander Seed” won a Pushcart Prize.
When they’re too anxious to write, they bake.