Mag Gabbert is the author of SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS, which was selected by Kathy Fagan as the winner of the Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry and won the Writers League of Texas Book Award in Poetry; the chapbook The Breakup, which was selected by Kaveh Akbar as the winner of the Baltic Writing Residencies Chapbook Award; and the chapbook Minml Poems. Mag is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Discovery Award from 92NY's Unterberg Poetry Center, and fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Idyllwild Arts, and Poetry at Round Top. Her work can be found in Poetry Magazine, The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review Daily, Copper Nickel, Guernica, The Massachusetts Review, Poetry Daily, and in many other journals and magazines. Mag has a BA from Trinity University—where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, with Honors in English—an MFA from the University of California at Riverside, and a PhD from Texas Tech University. She currently teaches at Southern Methodist University and serves as the 2024-2026 Poet Laureate of Dallas, Texas.
Teaching Experience
| Title | Institution | Courses Include | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical Assistant Professor | Southern Methodist University |
The Art of Creativity & Expression; Research-Based Writing; The Human Experience: Intro to Graduate Liberal Studies |
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 ‘She Unnames Them’: Naming in Contemporary Poetry |
2018, 2020, 2023, 2024 |
| Adjunct Lecturer | Southern Methodist University |
Creative Writing Across Genres; Creating Compelling Narratives; Creative Writing for Publication |
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
- 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