My name is kamden ishmael hilliard. i was born in la
Jolla, CA to Amalia and Larry Hilliard. We moved to Oah'u in 2002. I graduated from Punahou School in 2012 and ended undergraduate careers at Sarah Lawrence College and The University of Hawai'i at Mānoa with a degree and thesis in American Studies, a UCROSS residency, and the publication of my first chapbook, distress tolerance (Magic Helicopter Press, 2016), as a selection in the Ada Lovelace Innovative Chapbook Series.
With the support of undergraduate mentors like Craig Santos Perez, I began an MFA at The Iowa Writers' Workshop as the Maytag Fellow in Poetry where I studied with da Powell, Layli Long Solider, Tracie Morris, and Simone White. As a second-year Teaching-Writing Fellow I designed a class called "EndTime Poetics" and taught the Undergraduate Poetry Workshop. During my second year I published my third chapbook, henceforce: a travel poetic with Omnidawn Books.
In 2019 I began a year long appointment as an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) member with the Greenville County Behavioral Health Coalition working to increase access to behavioral health services for folx across Upstate, South Carolina.
In 2020 I will begin a two year stay in Cleveland, OH as the 2020-2022 Anisfield-Wolf Fellow In Writing and Publishing.
With the support of undergraduate mentors like Craig Santos Perez, I began an MFA at The Iowa Writers' Workshop as the Maytag Fellow in Poetry where I studied with da Powell, Layli Long Solider, Tracie Morris, and Simone White. As a second-year Teaching-Writing Fellow I designed a class called "EndTime Poetics" and taught the Undergraduate Poetry Workshop. During my second year I published my third chapbook, henceforce: a travel poetic with Omnidawn Books.
In 2019 I began a year long appointment as an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) member with the Greenville County Behavioral Health Coalition working to increase access to behavioral health services for folx across Upstate, South Carolina.
In 2020 I will begin a two year stay in Cleveland, OH as the 2020-2022 Anisfield-Wolf Fellow In Writing and Publishing.