Alyx Chandler (she/her) is a poet from the South, currently living in Chicago, Illinois, where she teaches English and composition at various colleges and poetry to kids across the city as a Poet-in-Residence for the Chicago Poetry Center. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Montana, where she was a Richard Hugo fellow and taught poetry. She is a winner of the Three Sisters Award in Poetry for NELLE Literary Journal, a recipient of a Creative Catalyst Grant from the Illinois Arts Council, and a judge for Chicago’s Poetry Out Loud competition. Her poetry has been featured alongside visual art inspired by her words in exhibitions like Bodies Luminous and made into music by a composer and performers for Ear Taxi Festival. For five years, she led poetry workshops through Free Verse Writing Project and published the art of Montana youth who were incarcerated, in psychiatric care, or in youth homes. Hollering Spell, her first collection of poetry, was published in 2026 as a finalist in the New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition for Finishing Line Press. Her second chapbook, Girl of the Year, is forthcoming with Red Bird Chapbooks in 2027. She reads poetry for Unwoven Literary & Arts Magazine, and her work can be found in Painted Bride Quarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Southeastern Review, Thimble Literary Magazine, and elsewhere at https://www.instagram.com/alyxabc/.
Hollering Spell was a finalist in chapbook competitions held by Small Harbor Publishing, Nine Syllables Press, Quarter After Eight, the Comstock Review, and a semi-finalist in several others. Previously, she graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in journalism, marketing and a minor in creative writing, where she won the Holle Media Writing Award in 2015 for reporting, and then worked for several years in Birmingham as a features editor and journalist for Starnes Publishing.
The poem “Safe to Eat” in Hollering Spell won the 2025 Three Sisters Award in Poetry for Nelle Literary Journal and “In My Grandmomma’s Jaw” was a Finalist for the 2023 Michelle Boisseau Poetry Prize for Bear Review. In addition, the editors of Painted Bride Quarterly discuss three of her poems, including the namesake poem of the book “Hollering Spell” in Episode 143 of their Slush Pile Podcast.
As a white person writing about the South, Alyx wants to acknowledge the immense privilege her and her family experienced at the expense and livelihood of people of color, especially Black and Indigenous people, due to centuries of cruelty and institutionalized racism in America.
Diagnosed with Trichotillomania at the age of five after she pulled out all her eyelashes, Alyx is dedicated to spreading awareness about hair-pulling and other BFRBs (body-focused repetitive disorders) such as nail-biting and skin-picking. She writes against traditional beauty norms and works to combat the shame and isolation associated with significant hair loss from this often lifelong and incurable condition. For more information, go to bfrb.org or email her at alyxchandler@gmail.com.
Alyx currently lives with her wonderful partner, Sam, and her favorite feline friend, Gert, where she grows an absurd number of houseplants and loves being outside, especially near a body of water. She works to support LGBTQ+ rights, mental health awareness, anti-racism, and equal access to education for all. Alyx, who is neurodivergent and queer, is also an advocate for creative writing education and believes anyone (person, creature, or plant!) can be a poet.
Email me at alyxchandler@gmail.com.
