Cass Donish teaches in the Writing Identity theme. An interdisciplinary writer and educator, they hold an MA in cultural geography from the University of Oregon, an MFA in poetry from Washington University in St. Louis, and a PhD in English from the University of Missouri. Donish’s areas of interest are shaped by investments in gender, grief, and place. They are the author of the poetry collections Your Dazzling Death, winner of the Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award and finalist for a Lambda Literary Award; The Year of the Femme, winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize; and Beautyberry. Their nonfiction chapbook, On the Mezzanine, won the Gold Line Press Chapbook Contest. They were a co-founding editor of The Spectacle, WashU’s literary magazine, and a co-founder of Nightjar Arts Collective, an interdisciplinary art space in Columbia, Missouri.

When they’re not teaching, they enjoy writing at coffee shops, cuddling with their cats, organizing literary events, participating in activism, walking in city parks, and singing with their spouse in the folk duo Crayons.