CD Eskilson

CD Eskilson is a trans nonbinary poet, editor, and literary translator. Their work appears in Kenyon Review, The Offing, Pleiades, Hayden's Ferry Review, Ninth Letter, Passages North, and others. They are a recipient of the C.D. Wright / Academy of American Poets Prize and have been nominated for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Pushcart Prize. Their debut poetry collection, Scream / Queen, is forthcoming from Acre Books in 2025. Modern Woman, CD’s translation of Finland-Swedish poet Edith Södergran’s groundbreaking 1916 poetry collection, will be published by World Poetry Books in 2026.

CD is assistant poetry editor at Split Lip Magazine and a member of the Beloit Poetry Journal reading team. CD was previously poetry editor at Exposition Review, where they were also a board member. They also worked as the Series Coordinator for the Open Mouth Literary Center. CD earned their MFA from the University of Arkansas where they were awarded the Walton Family Fellowship in Poetry, the James T. Whitehead Award in Poetry, the James E. & Ellen Wadley Roper Fellowship in Creative Writing, and the Lily Peter Fellowship in Translation.

Once, they were in a punk band.