Anne
Kaier

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In memoirs, essays, and poems, I write about the body. How does a woman with a disability see herself as a sexual being? I tangle with how my skin disorder, ichthyosis, has influenced my romantic life. 

Honors include a mention in Best American Essays and the Propel Poetry Award (2025). NPR interviewed me about my essays that appeared in The New York Times. My memoir-in-progress is set at the University of Oxford, where I got an MA.

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Photo: Suzanne Sennhenn

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Just Published!

I'm proud to announce publication of my new book of poems. It won the Propel Series Award. 

How Can I Say It Was Not Enough? 

By Anne Kaier 
A candid memoir-in-poems about family dynamics, love, and sex—in ravishing and accessible verse.

“Brutal yet gorgeous.”

—Poet Elaine Terranova,
author of Rinse.

“There is searing truth in these enthralling poems.”

— Eleanor Wilner,
2025 Chancellor of the Academy
of American Poets

Now Available at:

AmazonBookshop.orgSyracuse University Press, or your local indie bookstore.

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Finalist for the AWP's Prize for Creative Nonfiction.

I'm mighty pleased and honored that my manuscript, They Said I Couldn't Have a Love Life: A Memoir, is one of ten finalists for the 2024 Association of Writers & Writing Programs' Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction.

Read an excerpt from They Said I Couldn't Have a Love Life at the button below.

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Photo: Lisa Braxton

Fifty years after I first knew her at Oxford, I emailed Anna, telling her I planned to visit Britain. Could we get together? Shed been a lithe, black-haired, funny young Englishwoman and a kind friend when we were students. Working on a memoir about those years gave me an excuse to get in touch after a long, silent time.
Yes, of course,” she replied. She and her husband Will would meet me at the train station in London. I should know, she wrote, that she now used a wheelchair because Multiple Sclerosis had slowed her down. But theyd love to see me.

I talk about how my work as a poet influences my writing of memoir.

Rosemont Writer's Retreat with Anne Kaier and moderator Carla Spataro from Main Line Television on Vimeo.

Craft interviews:

 

Click here to read an interview in the AWP Writer's Chronicle. I talked about disability and poetry with poets Stephen A. Kussisto, Ona Gritz, Daniel Simpson, Nathan Spoon, and Lisa Dougherty..

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