instagram and twitter: daniellejhanson, and check out instagram @the_egerstedt_twins
Danielle Hanson’s mission in her work is to create and facilitate wonder.
Danielle Hanson received her MFA from Arizona State University and her undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She is Marketing Director, and on the Editorial Board, for Sundress Press, and Managing Editor for their imprint Doubleback Books. She has formerly served as Senior Reader at Atlanta Review, Poetry Editor for Hayden's Ferry Review, and associate editor for Loose Change Magazine and Carriage House Review. She was the 2021-22 Poet in Residence at Arts Beacon in Atlanta, GA and Writer-in-Residence for Georgia Writers. Her work has appeared in over 100 journals and anthologies, including Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Iodine Poetry Journal, Rosebud, Willow Springs, Roanoke Review, Poet Lore, Asheville Poetry Review, and Blackbird. She has been on staff at the Meacham Writers' Conference and the Chattahoochee Valley Writers' Conference, and completed residencies at The Hambidge Center. She has received several Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. She is the 2023 recipient of the Elixir Press Poetry Prize, the 2017 Codhill Press Poetry Prize, Finalist for the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year Award for Poetry, and 2016 recipient of the Vi Gale Award from Hubbub. She is a 2021 recipient of a Readings & Workshops Grant from Poets & Writers.
She is the author of three collections of poetry, Editor of Sightlines: View Points on Susheel Kumar Sharma’s The Door is Half Open (Paragon International Press, 2024), Co-Editor with Julia Beach Anderson of Objects in the Mirror: An Anthology of Legacy (Press 53, 2025), and book editor for seven poetry collections at Doubleback Books.
Her third collection The Night Is What It Eats (Elixir Press, 2025) won the Elixir Press Poetry Prize, and was previously Finalist for the Vassar Miller Prize and the 42 Miles Poetry Prize in 2023, and the White Pine Press Prize and then Marsh Hawk Prize in 2022; and was Semifinalist for the Washington Prize in 2023, the Elixir Press Prize, Idaho Prize, and Richard Snyder Prize in 2022, and the Elixir Press Prize and the Word Works Open Reading Period in 2021.
Her second collection Fraying Edge of Sky (Codhill Press, 2018) won the 2017 Codhill Press Poetry Prize, and was previously a Finalist in the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry in 2017, the Wick Poetry Prize in 2017, the Codhill Poetry Award in 2017, the Antivenom Poetry Award in 2016 and 2017, and the Richard Snyder Prize in 2016 and 2017; and was Semifinalist in the National Poetry Series in 2017, the Crab Orchard Series in 2017, the Elixir Press Prize in 2016, and The Washington Prize in 2016.
Her debut collection Ambushing Water (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2017) previously was Runner Up for the 2012 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize; Finalist for the 2015 and 2016 Robert Dana Prizes for Poetry; the 2015 and 2016 Blue Lynx Prizes; and the 2014 Codhill Poetry Award; and Semifinalist for the 2015 Miller Williams Poetry Prize; the 2012, 2014 and 2015 Crab Orchard Poetry Series; the 2013 and 2014 42 Miles Press Poetry Awards; the 2013 Elixir Press Antivenom Award; the 2015 and 2016 Codhill Poetry Award; the 2015 Washington Prize; and the 2015 Richard Snyder Publication Prize.
Her as-yet-unpublished manuscripts have been short/long-listed for the Richard Snyder Prize, Elixir Press Prize, The Word Works Prize, Hilary Tham Collection, Tenth Gate Prize, White Pine Press Book Prize, Lexi Rudnitsky Prize from Persea Books, Slope Editions Book Prize, and The Washington Prize.
Danielle’s mission has led to her work with poets and visual artists to create the show Alloy, an exhibit of creative mutualism (Arts Beacon Gallery, 2021), and with puppeteers to create Haunting the Wrong House (Center for Puppetry Arts Xperimental Puppetry Theater, 2019) and an upcoming show in 2025.
Danielle teaches poetry at University of California, Irvine.
photo credits: Kelley klein, Erin Brauer, and Colin Potts
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Danielle Hanson’s poems reside in shadows and daydreams, but they are not whimsy. They are weighted by emotion. Inside an empty mailbox there is a longing, a loneliness, and Hanson allows that emptiness to evolve into “a small species of bird/with the call of late night radio.” I swear, I have heard that bird call before. I really love these poems.
/ Judge’s Statement, georgia author of the year /
Experience
Danielle enjoys sharing poetry live and online. She has collaborated with existing poetry distribution venues, and innovated her own to reach new audiences. Some of her work includes:
Marketing Director, Sundress Press
Editorial Board, Sundress Press
Poetry Instructor, UC Irvine
Poet-in-Residence, Arts Beacon, Atlanta, GA
Alloy, a pairing of poets, artists, and musicians, gallery exhibition, Arts Beacon, Atlanta, GA
Godmother, Southeast Atlanta Lady MOB networking group
Writer-in-Residence, Georgia Writers Association
Haunting the Wrong House, a poetry puppet show at Center for Puppetry Arts
Poetry-oke with Little 5 Arts Alive and the Atlanta-Fulton County Library
Managing Editor/Poetry Editor of Doubleback Books
Application Screener and Resident, The Hambidge Center and Sundress Academy for the Arts
Manuscript Screener, AWP’s Donald Hall Prize
Senior Reader, Atlanta Review
Poetry Workshop Teacher, Atlanta Girls School and Atlanta-Fulton County Library
Contributor, Tupelo Press 30/30 Project
Mentor, AWP Writer to Writer Mentorship Program
Poetry Editor and Editor of Translation Section, Hayden’s Ferry Review
Interviews and Articles
Bold Journey Magazine Interview, August 23, 2023
CanvasRebel Interview, November 2, 2022
Shoutout Atlanta: Meet Danielle Hanson, Poet and Editor, April 8, 2021
ArtsATL: In Our Own Words, January 28, 2021
Georgia Writers Association, Instagram Q&A, December 11, 2020
The Maynard: Re-View #10: The Only Card in a Deck of Knives by Lauren Turner, December 2020
Plume: A Writer’s Companion, Podcast with Danielle Hanson, October 5, 2020
Plume: A Writer’s Companion, Interview with Danielle Hanson, September 24, 2020
Poets & Writers, Guide to Publicity and Promotion: Business Management Tools to Improve Your Writing Life (2019 Update)
Poets & Writers: Business Management Tools to Improve Your Writing Life (September/October 2018)
Poets in Pajamas, online, originally filmed September 16, 2018 (watch here)
Poetry Reading and Class for 5th Grade and Above, online, filmed March 2020 (watch here)
Poetry Reading and Class for High School and Above, online, filmed March 2020 (watch here)
Poetry Reading and Class for College and Adults, online, filmed March 2020 (watch here)
A PDF version of Danielle’s CV can be found here.
Links to online publications can be found here.
Links to upcoming readings can be found here.