The Storyteller’s Path: Kinsale Drake’s Journey Through Poetry, Advocacy, and Heritage
Kinsale Drake is a Diné poet, editor, and playwright whose work has been featured in Poetry, Best New Poets, Poets.org, Poetry Northwest, The Slowdown, Black Warrior Review, The Adroit Journal, Poetry Online, Yale Literary Magazine, TIME, NPR, MTV, and more. Her debut poetry collection, The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket (University of Georgia Press, 2024), was awarded the 2023 National Poetry Series, solidifying her as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary poetry.
From 2017 to 2018, Kinsale served as a National Student Poet, an honor bestowed by the Library of Congress and the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities. Her early achievements include earning three national gold medals through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, performing her poetry at esteemed venues like the Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall, and the Aspen Ideas Festival. She also led poetry workshops for Sherman Indian School in Riverside, CA, in 2018 and served as a judge for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards from 2022 to 2023, contributing to the next generation of young writers.
A graduate of Yale University, Kinsale earned dual B.A.s in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration and English in 2022. Her accolades during her time at Yale include the Susan O’Connor Award, fellowships from Mellon Mays and the Richter Fund, the J. Edgar Meeker Prize, the Academy of American Poets Prize, and the Young Native Playwrights Award. She has also been a Bucknell June Poets Fellow and an inaugural Indigenous Nations Poets Fellow, both in 2022. Since 2022, she has served as guest faculty for the Emerging Diné Writers Institute at Navajo Technical University, contributing to the development of Indigenous literary voices.
Kinsale is deeply committed to promoting Indigenous literature and voices. She edited Changing Wxman Collective and directs the NDN Girls Book Club, a nonprofit organization that amplifies Indigenous literature at all levels while providing free literary programming to Native youth.
Her recent accolades include the 2023 Adroit Prize for Poetry, the Joy Harjo Poetry Award, and the 2023 Aspen Institute Poetry Fellowship. She has performed at Carnegie Hall twice, in 2018 and 2023. Recognized as a changemaker, Kinsale was featured in Yahoo! “In The Know” Changemakers in 2022, The Sunday Paper’s 2023 Changemakers, and Time’s People Changing How We See the World, curated by Ava DuVernay.
Kinsale Drake’s multifaceted career continues to bridge traditional narratives and contemporary storytelling, creating an indelible impact on literature and advocacy for Indigenous voices.
For more on her debut book of poetry, read more at: Beneath the Stars: Kinsale Drake’s Journey Through Heritage and Survival in "The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket."
A Blossoming List of Academic Achievements and Literary Honors
Published Works
Poetry Collection:
The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket (University of Georgia Press, 2024): This debut collection won the 2023 National Poetry Series.
Zine:
Hummingbird Heart (Abalone Mountain Press, 2022): A collection of poems and illustrations.
Anthology Contributions:
Her work is included in New World Coming (Torrey House Press, 2021) and The Languages of Our Love (Abalone Mountain Press, 2022).
Poems in Literary Journals and Magazines:
"Navajo-English Dictionary" in Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts.
"Sound of Under-Water" in The Adroit Journal.
"Put on that KTNN" featured in PoetrySnaps!
Awards and Honors
2023 National Poetry Series Winner for The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket.
2023 Adroit Journal Prize for Poetry.
2023 Aspen Institute Emerging Writer Fellowship for Poetry.
2023 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Finalist.
2022 Joy Harjo Poetry Award for "Navajo-English Dictionary."
2022 Young Native Playwrights Award for As It Has Always Been.
2022 Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) Inaugural Fellowship.
2017 National Student Poet representing the West.
Academic Achievements
Bachelor of Arts in English and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration from Yale University (2022).
Recipient of the Susan O’Connor Award, J. Edgar Meeker Prize, and Academy of American Poets College Prize at Yale.
Professional Roles
Director of NDN Girls Book Club, a nonprofit organization promoting Indigenous literature and providing free literary programming for Native youth.
Guest Faculty Member at the Emerging Diné Writers Institute at Navajo Technical University.
Media Features and Recognitions
Featured in TIME as one of "34 People Changing How We See Our World" (2019).
Named a Yahoo! "In the Know" Changemaker (2021).
Featured in Nylon discussing activism, poetry, and identity (2019).
Audiobook Narration
Narrated Elatsoe (2020) and A Snake Falls to Earth (2021) by Darcie Little Badger.
Narrated Race to the Sun (2020) by Rebecca Roanhorse.
Contributed to The Cursed Carnival & Other Calamities (2021).
Performances
Performed poetry at Carnegie Hall in New York (June 2023).
Comments