About
A former Northwest Florida Poet Laureate (2020–2023) and founder of the Northwest Florida Poets Chapter of the Florida State Poets Association (2023), Katherine's second poetry collection, Bone Geometry (Emerald Coast Writers, 2023), received the Florida Writers Association’s 2024 Bronze Royal Palm Literary Award.
Her debut speculative novel manuscript, Before the Thunder, set in an alternate 1972 New Orleans, won the Florida Writers Association 2024 Gold Royal Palm Literary Award for Blended Genre Unpublished Novel and the organization's 2024 Book of the Year (Unpublished).
Katherine earned her undergraduate degree in English education from the University of New Orleans, her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University, and her PhD in English from Georgia State University.
Katherine’s writing, both poetry and fiction, has also earned awards from the Alabama Writers Conclave, the Florida State Poets Association, the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, and the Tallahassee Writers Association.
Featured Work
Bone Geometry
In her award-winning second poetry book, Bone Geometry, Katherine Nelson-Born, former Poet Laureate of Northwest Florida (2020-2023), takes the reader on a tour of self-discovery. Haunting, captivating, and deeply personal, her poems are rich in folklore, ancestral tales, swamps, rivers, cemeteries, and “haint” blue – elements which embody her New Orleans heritage. The collection of 42 poems is divided into Part I: Sticks and Stones and Part II: Bone Geometry. The book was written during the Covid pandemic while Katherine served as her community's Poet Laureate. During her term, Katherine delivered hope through the healing power of poetry to residents of the Florida Panhandle. Now this collection offers hope to readers everywhere.
Other Works
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When Mockingbirds Sing
2016
