Eric McHenry
B. 1972
![Headshot of poet Eric McHenry.](https://cdn-test.poetryfoundation.org/cdn-cgi/image/w=10,h=10,q=50,blur=3/content/images/6dff5e3d0fd583c985eff63220f28d2d5947ade2.jpeg)
Eric McHenry was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas. He earned a BA from Beloit College and an MA in creative writing from Boston University. His first collection of poetry, Potscrubber Lullabies (2006), won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Other works include the poetry collections Odd Evening (2016) and Mommy Daddy Evan Sage (2011) and, as editor, Peggy of the Flint Hills: A Memoir by Zula Bennington Greene (2012). McHenry’s writing appears widely in publications such as the New York Times Book Review, Salon, and Slate. His awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize and a Theodore Roethke Prize from Poetry Northwest. He is a professor at Washburn University and served as poet laureate of Kansas from 2015 to 2017.