About

Elizabeth Robinson grew up in southern California and was educated at Bard College, Brown University, and the Pacific School of Religion. She has taught at several institutions, including the University of San Francisco, the University of Colorado, and Naropa University. She was a visiting professor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and twice served as the Hugo Fellow at the University of Montana. She currently teaches at the Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop in Denver.

Robinson is the author of 20 books, most recently Rendered Paradise written collaboratively with Susanne Dyckman, published by Apogee Press. Other recent books are Thirst & Surfeit from Threadsuns Press, and Excursive, published by Roof Books. Robinson has been the winner of the National Poetry Series for Pure Descent (Sun & Moon), and the Fence Modern Poets Prize for Apprehend. Robinson’s mixed genre meditation, On Ghosts, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in Poetry. In addition, Robinson has been recognized with grants and awards from the Fund for Poetry, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Boomerang Foundation. She has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts, the Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University, and the Maison Dora Maar in Menerbes, France. In recent years, Robinson has been recognized with Editors’ Choice awards from Scoundrel Time and New Letters. She was a 2023 recipient of a Pushcart Prize and will be included in the Best American Poetry anthology of 2024, edited by Terrence Winch.

Robinson was co-editor, with Colleen Lookingbill, of EtherDome Chapbooks, and, with Beth Anderson, Susanne Dyckman, and Laura Sims, of Instance Press. She was also an editor of the literary periodicals 26 and Pallasksch. Pallaksch.  With Jennifer Phelps, she co-edited the critical anthology Quo Anima: innovation and spirituality in contemporary women’s poetry published by University of Akron Press.

Currently, Robinson, who is ordained by the United Church of Christ, is senior pastor at Orinda Community Church in the Bay Area. She is married to the poet Randy Prunty.

Books forthcoming in late 2025 include:

  • Vulnerability Index from Northwestern University/Curbstone Books

  • Being Modernists Together from Solid Objects

  • Bay Area Suite, a collection of chapbooks featuring Elizabeth Robinson, Randy Prunty, George Albon, and Denise Newman from Selva Oscura/Three Count Pour