Welcome to the September 2019 Blue Heron Review Featured Author spotlight! We are honored and proud to share the luminous work of author, poet, and teacher, Kai Coggin. Kai’s latest poetry book is Incandescent (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019). Kai is a past contributor to issues of Blue Heron Review, and she was one of our featured authors in 2016. Delighted to share her wisdom and healing energy, again, this month.

(photo credit: David Yerby)

“Incandescent, Kai’s third and most recent bold collection, shines a blazing FIRE on the injustices of the world, on the darkness of the political sphere, and on the beautiful hearth of the home. It offers the reader a bit of hope through the chaos, a spark of revolution, a call to rise up and stand as warriors against the unraveling of our collective principles of good. It is a spark, a flame, a fire, an ember of truth that will not be silenced. Incandescent is a clarion call that burns like a phoenix rising from the ash.”

Please visit the Blue Heron Speaks Featured Author Page on our site, to read 4 sample poems from Kai’s new book, and to learn more about her inspiring work!

Kai Coggin is a poet, author, and teaching artist living in the valley of a small mountain in Hot Springs National Park, AR. She holds a B.A. in English, Poetry, and Creative Writing from Texas A&M University. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Entropy, Sinister Wisdom, Assaracus, Calamus Journal, Lavender Review, The Rise Up Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Luna Luna, Blue Heron Review, Hoctok, Yes, Poetry and elsewhere.

Coggin is the author of three full-length collections, Periscope Heart (Swimming with Elephants, 2014), Wingspan (Golden Dragonfly Press, 2016), and Incandescent (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019), as well as a spoken word album called Silhouette (2017). Her poetry has been nominated three times for The Pushcart Prize, as well as Bettering American Poetry 2015, and Best of the Net 2016 and 2018. Kai teaches an adult creative writing class called Words & Wine, and is also a Teaching Artist with the Arkansas Arts Council and Arkansas Learning Through the Arts, specializing in bringing poetry and creative writing to youth around the state. www.kaicoggin.com