emma miao

Emma Miao is a poet, editor, and pianist from Vancouver, Canada. Her work is published in Gulf Coast, Frontier Poetry, Atlanta Review, Diode Poetry Journal, Permafrost, The Fourth River, Rust + Moth, HOBART, and Subnivean. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Surging Tide Magazine and loves striking, lyrical, genre-defying work.Her chapbook, "Geography of Mothers," won the 2021 Frog Hollow Press Chapbook Contest. Her poem "Fifty years after the war" won the Cincinnati Review Adele and Robert Schiff Award 2021. Her poem "Rabbits on the Balcony" won The Fiddlehead's 2021 Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem. She is a Foyle Young Poet, a F(r)iction Lit Contest winner, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Centre's Poetry Contest, Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest, and Yemassee Poetry Prize.In addition to writing, Emma holds an ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and is a Crescendo Competition Winner and CMC National Finalist and. She has played in Vienna and New York, and she opened for Chinese singer Sun Nan's concert in Vancouver. Her spoken word + piano EP, Oscillation, was published January 2021. She is a rising freshman at Harvard University.
Selected Poems
forthcoming
Cincinnati Review — Fifty years after the war (Winner of the $1000 annual Adele and Robert Schiff Award) (Spring 2022)
published
Hominum Journal — Exhibition (February 2021)
Gulf Coast — Ceremonies (February 2022)
Subnivean — Mistranslations, Boat Sonnet, Recovered Letter, Aubade, Tomato Sonnet (November 2021)
F(r)iction Lit — Portrait of a Girl Named July (Winner of the F(r)iction Spring Poetry Contest 2020. March 2021)
Frontier Poetry — Smokescreens (August 2021)
Quarterly West — War (August 2021)
West Trestle Review — Lifelines (August 2021)
Columba — Cytosome (January 2022)
Honey Literary — Ode to Animalism, Geography of Mothers (July 2021)
Permafrost Magazine — Double Sonnet for Tulips (print, May 2021)
beestung — Phantasm with Bones (May 2021)
HOBART — Dynasty (May 2021)
The Fiddlehead — Rabbits on the Balcony (Winner of the Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem. Nominated for Best New Poets. March 2021)
Atlanta Review — Nanjing (Finalist in the 2020 Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest. Print. May 2021)
Plum Recruit — Rhapsody with Body Parts (December 2020)
Diode Poetry Journal — Xiang River Soliloquy (November 2020)
Rust + Moth — Home is Where the Dandelions Grow (November 2020)
SCUM — Aubade for Larks in December (October 2020)
Poetry Society — The Belly of the Wolf (Commended in August Challenge #2 by Young Poets Network. September 2020)
Poetry Society — the lake is enough to blind you (3rd Place in Artlyst Ekphrastic Challenge. July 2020)
Pulitzer Centre for Crisis Reporting — double sonnet for education (Finalist in the Fighting Words Poetry Contest. July 2020)
The Fourth River — Mistranslations (January 2022)
Glass: A Journal of Poetry — Winter in Distillation (June 2020)
The Emerson Review — PS752 (print and online. April 2020)
Rising Phoenix Review — Unbecoming (April 2020)
Eunoia Review — Memories of the Yellow River (March 2020)
Geography of Mothers: Chapbook (2021)

Cover design by Lisa Chun
Signed Copies are available at no further cost! If you'd like a personalized message from me, please click "signed copies" above.You will receive a reciept copy of your Google Form response immediately after submitting the form.
Please direct any questions to emmamiaowrites@gmail.com.
Winner of the Frog Hollow 2021 Chapbook Contest
Includes poems "Portrait of a Girl Named July," "Nanjing," "Exhibition," and "Fifty years after the war"
ISBN 978-1-989946-16-9
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Honors
2021
Winner, Cincinnati Review 2021 Robert and Adele Schiff Award for Poetry
Best New Poets Nomination (The Fiddlehead)
Winner, 2021 Frog Hollow Press Chapbook Contest for "Geography of Mothers"
Winner, The Fiddlehead Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize for Best Poem for "Rabbits on the Balcony"
Interview for Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize
Honorable Mention, Nancy Thorp Poetry Prize
Regional Winner, National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
2020
Finalist, Atlanta Review International Poetry Competition
Commended, Poetry Society UK Fairy Tale Challenge
Runner Up, Robert Graves Youth Poetry Prize
Winner, F(r)iction Lit Spring Poetry Contest for "Portrait of a Girl Named July," selected by Devin Kelly
Finalist, Yemassee Poetry Contest
Finalist, Gigantic Teen Sequins
Finalist, Pulitzer Center Fighting Words International Poetry Contest for "double sonnet for education"
3rd Place, Art to Poetry International Youth Poetry Prize for "the lake is enough to blind you"
Best Original Poem under 16, Vancouver Speech and Drama Festival for "PS752"
Champion, Poetry in Voice School Competition
2019
Commended, Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, selected by Jackie Kay and Raymond Antrobus
Champion, Poetry in Voice School Competition
Champion, West Coast Festival for the Performing Arts
Oscillation: EP (2021)
"Sunrise Kingdom" on COUNTERCLOCK Fellowship Cover Page
Published on Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud
Oscillation examines the intersections between poetry and music. Much of poetry is derived or inspired by music (rhythm, meter, polyphony) — Oscillation highlights that by pressing poetry and music against each other. A magic exists between these noteheads, these words. The term oscillation implies duality, or one thing depending on another to move forward; likewise, poetry & music oscillate in this album space to create an efflorescent listening experience. I created Oscillation in the COUNTERCLOCK Arts Collective Summer 2020, where I met incredibly talented and kind artists, learned new techniques from mentors, and collaborated on ideas with my cohort of fellow artists.Welcome to Oscillation. I can't wait for you to dive in.
Experience
editorial
Surging Tide Magazine, Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Up the Staircase Quarterly, Poetry Reader
EX/POST Magazine, Poetry Reader
readings
Sine Theta Magazine Online Reading May 18th, 2020
Poetry Society UK Reading "the lake is enough to blind you"
Robert Graves Poetry Prize Wimbledon Bookfest "Aubade with Two Lungs and a Hospital Bed"
education
Mentee, Iowa Young Writers' Studio, under Janelle Effiwatt (2020)
Mentee, Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship, under Dorothy Chan (2020)
Mentee, Incandescent Review Poetry Mentorship, under Lydia Wei (2020)
Independent Fellow, COUNTERCLOCK Arts Collective, under Michael Frazier & Grace Coberly (2020) — Project: Oscillation
Mentee, Iowa Young Writers' Studio 2021
+More
I write a longform newsletter on Substack. Read it here:
I would also love to do readings, workshops, and other events.
I can also talk endlessly about Anne Carson, Erik Satie, and/or Monty Python.
Drop me a line! :)Or email me: emmamiaowrites [at] gmail [dot] com