Connor Watkins-Xu holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland and a BA in Professional Writing from Baylor University. He was a 2025 Writing Fellow at the Jack Straw Cultural Center and his poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Poet Lore, North American Review, Redivider, Columbia Journal, Gargoyle, The Hong Kong Review, Salvation South, and elsewhere. His manuscript has been named a semifinalist for the Berkshire Prize and The Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry. He is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize, scholarships to the Southampton Writers Conference and New York State Summer Writers Institute, and nominations for Best of the Net and Best New Poets. Originally from Alabama, he lives with his wife in upstate New York.