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Koan Brink was born and raised in Minnesota. They hold a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Barnard College and an M.F.A. in Poetry from Columbia University, where they received a Teaching Fellowship in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Program. Brink studied for an additional year at Union Theological Seminary and was selected as a 2019 Seminary Fellow with Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE). A lay ordained Soto Zen student, they received precepts from Kosen Gregory Snyder in 2019 and regularly teach classes at the Austin Zen Center.

Brink is the author, most recently, of the poetry chapbook Pale Interiors (The Song Cave, 2024) and an artist’s book, What Sleeps under Lacquer (NECK, 2022). Their chapbook The End of Lake Superior (above/ground) was published in 2021. From 2018-22, Brink served as the Art Writing Fellow in the School of Art at The Cooper Union, where they continue to work as an associate for the Center for Writing. From 2016-17, they served as the Donald Everett Axinn Fellow at the Academy of American Poets.

Brink is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English Literature at The University of Texas at Austin, where they study late medieval and early modern poetic forms; prophetic and apocalyptic literatures; temporality; and the history of the book

They live in Austin, Texas, with their partner and rescue husky.

IG: @__wolfmoon___