Bio

ILSE BENDORF is a poet born and raised in Iowa City.

Ilse’s poems have been published in Drunken Boat, Blood Orange Review, University of Iowa Daily Palette, and 5×5. Ilse has been awarded a 2010 Lambda Literary Fellowship in Poetry, a Matthew Shepard Scholarship, and a Stanley Award for International Research. A graduate of the University of Iowa with a B.A. in English, Ilse has also studied creative writing in Dublin through the Irish Writing Program.

Other adventures have included working for the University of Iowa Women’s Resource & Action Center, an organic farm in Oregon, Representative Tammy Baldwin on Capitol Hill, and the Federal Communications Commission.

Ilse is currently a writing tutor and corner-market clerk in Washington, DC.