Whitney Koo holds a PhD in English-Creative Writing from Oklahoma State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her creative work and literary research focus on the tradition of the elegy, particularly in the formation of the modern elegy under the influence of documentary poetics and mass violence in America. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in journals such as Colorado Review, Los Angeles Review, Annulet, American Literary Review, Heavy Feather Review, Bayou Review, Poetry South, among others. She is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Gasher Press, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit book press, and a book designer.  

Website: www.whitneykoo.com

Service to the Profession

Founder/Editor in Chief, Gasher Press, www.gasherpress.com

Publications

Poetry

• "Not Pregnant Again." The Los Angeles Review (2023): Web.
• "I Talk With a Mouth That Can't Get Up." Annulet: A Journal of Poetics (2023): Web.
• "Ophelia in the Swanning." Issue 15, Poetry South (2023): Print.
• "Sister As Outlasting Character." Beaver Magazine (2023) Web.
• "Against Elegy" Always Crashing (2023): Web.
• "Body of Shoelace" and "The Lilacs Were Wild In the Graveyard" Figure 1 (2022): Web.
• “Still During the Russian Invasion" and "Ode to the Line" Jet Fuel Review (2022): Web.
• "During the Russian Invasion" and "Seventh Elegy" Birdcoat Quarterly (2022): Web.
• “On Hunger and Birthing.” American Literary Review (2020): Web.
• “Galeless.” Colorado Review (2019): Print.
• “Shuyet.” Bayou Magazine (2019): Print.
• 3 poems. Action, Spectacle (2019) Web.
• “Chorus Song no. 3.” Breakwater Review (2018): Web.
• Three Poems. Patient Sounds: Window 2 (2016): 21-23. Web.
• “The Auctioneer's Daughter.” The Thought Erotic (2015): Web.
• “Palimpsest.” Anamesa Journal 13.2 (2015): 9. Web. 

Creative Nonfiction

• "Pre-Elegy For My Sister" Winner of the 2023 Force Majeure Flash Contest, Storm Cellar Review: Print.
• "Anti-" The Palisades Review (2023): Print.
• “An Offering of Space.” Heavy Feather Review (2020): Web.  

Panels and Interviews

• Panelist, "Winning Words: Best Practices for Submitting to Book Prizes" AWP (2023). 
• Interviewee, "'How Are We Serving Emerging Writers?' A Chat with Whitney Koo, Editor of Gasher Journal" Lit Mag News Roundup (2022): YouTube. 
• Moderator, "Freedom as Literary Ecotone: Ecowriting Along the Borders of Poetry/Prose and Non/Human Communities" Oklahoma State University's Art and Humanities Graduate Colloquium (Fall 2021). 
• Panelist, "Participating and Shaping Small Press" OSUCW Publishing Panel 2021. 
• Panelist, "Navigating Journal Submissions" OSUCW Publishing Panel 2019.

Honors and Awards

• First Place (flash prose). 2023 Force Majeure Flash Contest, Storm Cellar Review, Fall 2023. 
• 3rd Place. Marye Lynn Cummings Scholarship in Creative Writing - Poetry, Spring 2022. 
• Winner. Edward Walkiewicz Contemporary Studies Scholarship (“The Event Horizon: Black Holes, Blackness, and Sound”), Spring 2021. 
• First Place (Poetry). 2018 Tucson Festival of Books ​Judge: Mary Jo Bang, 2018. 

Visiting Assistant Professor
Creative Writing

Email: whitney.koo@ttu.edu
Office: 150B