Colleen Powderly began writing poetry in 1997. Early poems reflected her childhood in the deep South and youth in the Midwest. Those poems eventually formed the basis for her book, Split. Her work has appeared in many journals, including Blue Collar Review, Third Wednesday, The Alembic, Fox Cry Review, The HazMat Review; online in The Centrifugal Eye, and in Malala: Poems for Malala Yousefzai.