Mag Gabbert is an American poet and educator who was born and raised in
Dallas, Texas. She received her BA in English from Trinity University,
where she was awarded a June Cook Scholarship for Creative Writing and
graduated magna cum laude, with honors in English. She received her MFA
in poetry from the University of California, Riverside. And she received
her PhD in English, with a focus on creative writing, from Texas Tech
University, where she was awarded the James. D. and Mary Hazlewood
Memorial Graduate Fellowship and the Bruce G. and Cara Pollard Herlin
Scholarship for Creative Writing.
Gabbert is the author of the full-length collection
SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS (Mad Creek Books, 2023), which was
selected by Kathy Fagan as the winner of the Charles B. Wheeler Award
and won the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award in Poetry. Gabbert’s
other books include Spotted Ponies: The Collected Zines (Bridwell
Press, 2025)—a collection of poetry and art written in collaboration
with Chen Chen, Tarfia Faizullah, Leila Chatti, Carly Joy Miller, and
Taylor Dolan—and two chapbooks: The Breakup (Action, Spectacle,
2023), which was selected by Kaveh Akbar as the winner of the Baltic
Writing Residencies Chapbook Prize, and Minml Poems (Cooper
Dillon Books, 2020).
Gabbert’s work can additionally be found in Poetry Magazine,
The American Poetry Review, Poetry Daily,
The Paris Review Daily, Copper Nickel, Guernica,
Poets.org, and in many other journals, magazines, and
anthologies. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a 92NY Discovery
Award, and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Kenyon
Review Writers Workshop, and Idyllwild Arts, among others. Gabbert
currently teaches at Southern Methodist University and serves as the
2024-2026 Poet Laureate of Dallas.
Teaching Experience
| Title | Institution | Courses Include | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical Assistant Professor | Southern Methodist University |
The Art of Creativity & Expression; Research-Based Writing; Translations & Interpretations Across Art Forms |
2022 – Present |
| Guest Faculty Lecturer | University of California at Riverside |
Building with Tombstones: On Revival and Revision; Theory of Relativity: Poetry and Quantum Mechanics; The Four Horses of Poetry |
2018, 2020, 2023, 2024 |
| Adjunct Lecturer | Southern Methodist University |
Introduction to Creative Writing; Creative Writing Across Genres; Poetry for Today: Reading and Writing within Changing Societies |
2018 –2022 |
| Graduate Part-Time Instructor | Texas Tech University |
Introduction to Creative Writing; Introduction to Poetry; Essentials of College Rhetoric |
2014 –2018 |
| Faculty Instructor | Writing Workshops Dallas |
Poetry for Beginners; Mixed-Levels Poetry; Mixed-Levels Personal Nonfiction |
2017 - 2020 |
Selected Awards & Recognitions
- 2025 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow
- 2024-2026 Poet Laureate of Dallas, Texas
- Winner of the 2024 Writer’s League of Texas Book Award in Poetry
- Winner of a 2024 Pushcart Prize for the poem “Goat”
- Winner of the 2022 Baltic Writing Residencies Chapbook Award, selected by Kaveh Akbar
- Winner of the 2022 Action, Spectacle Poetry Prize, selected by Mary Jo Bang
- 2022 Kenyon Review Writers Workshop Peter Taylor Fellow
- Winner of OSU/The Journal’s 2021 Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry, selected by Kathy Fagan
- Winner of a 2021 92NY Discovery Award from the 92NY Unterberg Poetry Center
- 2020 Idyllwild Arts Poetry Fellow
- Winner of American Literary Review’s 2019 Rossetti Broadside Prize
- 2018 Poetry at Round Top Graduate Fellow