Ansel Elkins was born in the Alabama foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Poems recently appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, The American Scholar, The Believer, Best New Poets 2011, Boston Review, The North American Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2011 “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize, a 2011 North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship, and a 2012 fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society.