Anthony Carelli was born in Poynette, Wisconsin. He earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MFA from New York University. His first book, Carnations (2011), was published by the Princeton University Press and was a finalist for a Levis Reading Prize. Carelli draws on influences ranging from Dante to Elizabeth Bishop and in his narrative free-verse poems explores the spiritual dimensions of ordinary experiences. “Many of the poems I love most are about encounters between a poet and people or landscapes that talk back in surprising ways,” Carelli says. “My drafts don’t seem to be poems until I’ve written my speaker into some puzzling encounter or conversation that he is compelled to speak to or about. It is through these encounters that I get some idea about the pilgrim in my poem. I guess I’m imagining the birth of a pilgrim Anthony. After years of drafting a poem I can sometimes manage to bring this pilgrim to the page to converse with someone or something for seconds at a time.”

Carelli’s honors and awards include a Hodder Fellowship and a Whiting Award. He currently teaches at New York University and lives in Brooklyn.