Emma Miao is a poet, editor, and pianist from Vancouver, BC, Canada. She is a commended Foyle Young Poet of the Year, and her work is published in Frontier Poetry, Atlanta Review, Diode Poetry Journal, HOBART, Cosmonauts Avenue, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Permafrost Magazine, and The Emerson Review. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Surging Tide Magazine and serves on the editorial staff of Up the Staircase Quarterly and EX/POST Magazine.

Her chapbook, "Geography of Mothers," won the Frog Hollow Press Chapbook Contest and will be published in 2021. Her poem "Rabbits on the Balcony" won The Fiddlehead's 2021 Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem. She is the winner of the F(r)iction Poetry Contest 2020, a finalist for the Pulitzer Centre's Poetry Contest, Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest, and Yemassee Poetry Prize, and a winner of several contests by The Poetry Society.

In addition to writing, Emma holds an ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and is a 2018 Tom Lee International Award of Excellence Winner and scholarship recipient, CMC National Finalist, and Crescendo Competition Winner. 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 was born in 2004.

selected poems

forthcoming

  • Frontier Poetry — Smokescreens (August 2021)

  • Quarterly West — War (August 2021)

  • West Trestle Review — Lifelines (August 2021)

  • Honey Literary — Geography of Mothers, Self-Portrait in a Houseparty Bathroom, Ode to Animalism (August 2021)

  • Columba — Cytosome (Fall 2021)

published

Geography of Mothers: Chapbook (2021)

  • Winner of the Frog Hollow 2021 Chapbook Contest

  • Includes poems "Portrait of a Girl Named July," "Nanjing," "Exhibition," and "Rabbits on the Balcony"

  • ISBN 978-1-989946-16-9

  • Follow on Twitter for more updates

"Give me a river and I will swallow it whole.
Give me a mirror and I will become the predator.
We are the vessels of so many lies."

— "Rabbits on the Balcony,"
Winner of the 2021 Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem

honors

2021

  • 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)

Album Cover: tree grows out of three-dimensional pink triangle with curved lines that resemble soundwaves in background.

  • "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

readings

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

contact

I would 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