An Arkansas delta native, Kalina Smith (she/her) is a 2026 Pushcart Prize nominee and poet, though she also writes fiction and creative nonfiction. She teaches high school English and creative writing, where she spends her days nurturing young storytellers and navigating the emotional labor of the classroom. Outside of teaching, she enjoys spending time with her black cat, Gus, and her friends and family, trying to be a novice lepidopterist, attending way too many pop punk shows, and scaring herself with true crime and horror. Her work has appeared in Nebo, The Ignatian, FLARE: The Flagler Review, ONE ART: A Journal of Poetry, Tulsa Review, and many others, with work forthcoming in Cerasus and Schlock!. She served as poetry editor for Shadowplay during the Spring of 2025.
Her debut chapbook, Scorpio Season, was released in September 2025 by Kelsay Books.
Kalina Smith 