Gabrielle Bates
American writer and visual artist
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Gabrielle Bates is an American writer and visual artist from Birmingham, Alabama, known for her poetry comics.[6] Her debut poetry collection Judas Goat (Tin House, 2023) was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.[7] The collection has been reviewed for its focus on human and nonhuman animal encounters.[8] Bates lives in Seattle.
Gabrielle Bates | |
|---|---|
Bates reading at an event in 2023 | |
| Born | 1991 (age 34–35)[1] |
| Occupation | Writer, tutor and visual artist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | BA in English (Creative Writing), 2013 MFA in Creative Writing, 2016 |
| Alma mater | Auburn University University of Washington |
| Genre | Poetry Visual arts Creative nonfiction |
| Notable works | Judas Goat "For Louise Glück" |
| Notable awards |
|
| Spouse |
Andrew Stahlman (m. 2014) |
| Website | |
| www.gabriellebat.es/ | |
Life and education
Bates, who is a Scorpio,[9] was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama.[10] She earned a BA in English (creative writing) from Auburn University in 2013 and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington in 2016.[11]
Bates is the daughter of the professional photographer Liesa Cole. On April 12, 2014, Bates married Andrew Stahlman, whom she met while at Auburn.[5]
Career
Bates lives in Seattle, where she has worked for Open Books: A Poem Emporium as a social media manager,[12] and cohosts the podcast The Poet Salon.[13] She has taught through Hugo House, the Rosenbach Museum, Tin House Writers' Workshops, and the University of Washington Study Abroad Rome Program.[14][15]
Her work has appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.[16] She has received awards and scholarships including the Adroit Journal Gregory Djanikian Scholarship in Poetry (2019).[4] In 2022, she was a finalist for a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship.[3]
Judas Goat was published by Tin House in 2023. In The New York Times column "The Shortlist", Stephanie Burt discussed the collection's relationship to fairy tales.[17] The book was also included in NPR's "Books We Love: Best Books of 2023".[18] A UK/Ireland edition of Judas Goat was published by the87press in October 2025.[19]
Before her debut, Bates published a chapbook, This Afternoon We are All Arachnes, with Book Arts as a limited-edition poetry-comic accordion booklet (2017). Another chapbook, Before your bed was my bed / Antes de que tu cama fuese mi cama, was published as a bilingual edition translated by Bárbara Bianchi Ceballos (Desperate Literature, 2024).[16]
In January 2025, her essay on Brigit Pegeen Kelly's collection Song (1995), titled "The Verberating World", was published as part of West Branch's "This Long Winding Line: A Poetry Retrospective", edited by Shara Lessley.[20] As of 2025, Bates was also a visiting writer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.[21]
Reception
Bates sold out of copies of the collection at the Brooklyn Poets booth on the first day of AWP 2023".[22] The debut was also included in Electric Lit's "Best Poetry Collections of 2023"[23] and Book Riot's "12 of the Best Poetry Collections from 2023".[24] BuzzFeed, for their list of "13 New And Upcoming Poetry Collections To Pick Up If You're Trying To Get Into Poetry", wrote that "Bates's debut collection wrestles with motherhood and memory and the unfixed boundaries of what makes a place — or a person — feel like home."[25] Reviews in Only Poems noted the poems as focussing "on fragility and forced transformations" following transformative events,[26] making the fact that the "central theme of betrayal is explored" from all angles a point to be praised. Shannan Mann further called Judas Goat a collection you're "left wanting to re-read".[27] Another review said that "Bates writes with such precision it's almost ghastly."[28] It was the "Most-Anticipated Book of Winter" from Vulture.[29]
Bates's "stunning",[30] "gut-punching"[31] opener to Judas Goat, the poem titled 'The Dog', which first appeared in The Offing in 2019,[32] appeared on Poetry Daily over three years later.[33] The poem, which Bates noted as being "difficult" to place in the book,[34] was called "shocking" by the Mid-American Review Blog for "its unforgiving portrayal of the violence we cause."[35] Writing for Only Poems, Andreea Ceplinschi called the poem "[t]he highlight of th[e] collection".[26] On reading Judas Goat, Anthony Domestico called her Brigit Pegeen Kelly's "poetic daughter".[36] Mandana Chaffa, writing for the Chicago Review of Books, placed the collection as "a noteworthy debut, and confirmation of Bates's talent, heart and place in contemporary poetry."[37]
The Dawn Review praised "Bates's ability to capture seemingly uncontrollable things", noting the book as "clenched like a fist around an egg."[38]
Books
Awards
- 2015: Gigantic Sequins (Winner) Poetry Comic Contest, for "As When Gone Wildabouting"[39]
- 2019: The Gregory Djanikian Scholars Program (scholar)[4]
- 2022: Finalist, Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship[3]