Kellam Ayres’s debut poetry collection, IN THE CATHEDRAL OF MY UNDOING (Gunpowder Press, 2024), was chosen by Gary Soto as the winner of the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in New England Review, Ploughshares, Guernica, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. Her work has received support with grants and residencies from the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Studio Center. She works for the Middlebury College Library and serves as the liaison to the Bread Loaf School of English and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences. She’s a graduate of both the School of English and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, and lives with her husband, daughter, and son in rural Vermont.