Rikki Santer

Rikki Santer’s poetry has been published widely, and she has received honors including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2023, she was named Ohio Poet of the Year. 

Santer’s twelfth poetry collection, Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me (Materialist Press, 2023), is a sequence in tribute to the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Two of her poetry collections investigate place: Front Nine: A Biography of Place (Kulupi Press, 2005), exploring the Hopewell earthworks of Newark, Ohio, and Kahiki Redux (11thour Press, 2014, expanded in 2016), on the late Kahiki Supper Club of Columbus, Ohio. Clothesline Logic (Pudding House Publications, 2009) was a finalist in the Pudding House national chapbook competition. Santer’s other published collections include Fishing for Rabbits (Kattywompus Press, 2013); Make Me That Happy (NightBallet Press, 2017); Dodge, Tuck, Roll (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2018); In Pearl Broth: Poems New and Selected (Stubbon Mule Press, 2019); How to Board a Moving Ship (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2021); Drop Jaw (NightBallet Press, 2020), inspired by the art of ventriloquism; the chapbook Head to Toe of It (Kelsay Books, 2021); and Stopover (Luchador Press, 2021), inspired by the classic Twilight Zone series.

Santer earned an MA in journalism from Kent State University and an MFA in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She serves as vice president of the Ohio Poetry Association and is a member of the Ohio Arts Council’s Ohio Teaching Artist Roster.