Photo Credit: Jose Quintana

Originally from Bali, Indonesia, Cynthia Dewi Oka is the author of four poetry collections, most recently A Tinderbox in Three Acts (BOA Editions, 2022) and Fire Is Not a Country (Northwestern University Press, 2021). A recipient of the Amy Clampitt Residency, Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize, and the Leeway Transformation Award, her poems have been featured in The Atlantic, POETRY, Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, Hyperallergic, Guernica, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her experimental billboard poem, "Future Revisions," was exhibited at the Rail Park in Philadelphia. An alumnus of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, she has taught creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, New Mexico State University, Blue Stoop, and Voices of Our Nations (VONA). She has also served as a Lambda Literary LGBTQ Writer-in-Schools. A 2023 United States Artist Fellowship Nominee, she is currently based in Los Angeles.