Katie Ford

Katie Ford (born April 29, 1975 in Portland, Oregon) is an American poet, essayist, and professor. Life She was born to Mary and Michael Ford. She has two siblings, Kristin and Brian. She began writing at the age of 19, while earning her B.A. in English from Whitman College. Soon after, she earned her Master’s in Divinity from Harvard. Ford went on to pursue her Master’s in Fine Arts (MFA), with a concentration in poetry, from Iowa’s Writers Workshop. Along with her published poetry collections— Deposition, Colosseum, and Storm—her individual poems and essays can be found in many contemporary journals and reviews. Ford is currently a professor at University of California, Riverside. While a 19-year-old student at Whitman College earning her B.A. in English, Ford began writing poetry. In an interview with Devil’s Lake magazine board member, Nancy Reddy, Ford attributed her growth as a writer to poet, author, and playwright, Tess Gallagher: “In my last year of college, I studied under Tess Gallagher, and that was utterly formative for my ideas about poetry and poetics, especially in terms of lyricism and figuration.” Ford also credits poet Jorie Graham for inspiration during her studies at Harvard, where she earned a Master’s in Divinity and began work on her first poetry collection, Deposition. She then went on to receive a Master’s in Fine Arts (MFA) from the University of Iowa.