About

Shelly Holder is an emerging poet, poetry bookclub host, and self-proclaimed poetry “gig teacher.”

Shelly has a deep love for weeklong intensive workshops, beginning in 2012 with David Baker at the Kenyon Writer’s Workshop and recently reinforced by studying with Mark Doty at the 2022 Palm Beach Poetry Festival. Others she was fortunate enough to learn from include (in no particular order): Dan Beachy-Quick, Linda Gregerson, Ada Limon, Mary Szybist, Brain Teare, Dorianne Laux, and Rick Barot.

Her fascination with the idea of a writing community began after her second cancer diagnosis at 21 made the non-traditional a necessity. Now cancer free, she focuses on building her writing career and extending community, especially by developing a mobile reading room of literary magazines that will supplement writing programs’ existing education on the publication process. She hopes that a new role of chapter lead for the San Gabriel Valley chapter of Women Who Submit will allow her to enact these goals.

She lives somewhere she likes to call an “outer-outer-outer suburb” of Los Angeles, where she struggles to get an orange tree to fruit.