Danita Dodson is the author of three books of poetry: Trailing the Azimuth (2021), The Medicine Woods (2022), and Between Gone and Everlasting (2024), all published by the Resource Publications imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. She is currently writing her first novel, set in the hills of Appalachia during the Civil War era and inspired by family history. Danita is also the co-editor of Teachers Teaching Nonviolence (DIO Press, 2020) and the Assistant Editor of the Ahimsa Center Newsletter at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her critical articles have been published in literary journals, including an interview with novelist Margaret Atwood and seminal scholarship on The Handmaid’s Tale.

Danita holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, specializing in 20th-century American and British literature with an emphasis upon women authors and postcolonial writers. Her Masters in English was awarded from East Tennessee State University, and her Bachelors in English from Lincoln Memorial University. Combining her love of scholarship and diverse experiences, she has been a Fulbright-Hays fellow in Turkey, a university professor in Nicaragua, an amateur archaeologist in the Southwest, and a high school Spanish teacher in Appalachia.

She lives in a small town called Sneedville in the Cumberland Gap region of East Tennessee, where she hikes, explores local history, spends time with her family, and participates in community development. A dedicated educator, she currently serves an adjunct instructor with Walters State Community College, teaching composition, literature, and humanities.
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AWARDS

Best of the Fest, Poetry Society of Tennessee’s 67th Annual Poetry Festival, April 13, 2024. “Bits and Pieces” was recognized as the festival’s top poem.