PhD awarded 2018

Amy Leigh Wicks is a poet, actress, and educator from New York City. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington's International Institute of Modern Letters in New Zealand, and an MFA from The New School in New York. She is the author of The Dangerous Country of Love and Marriage (Auckland University Press, 2019) and Orange Juice and Rooftops (Eloquent Books, 2009).

She currently serves as Associate Dean of Performing Arts at Bethel Conservatory of the Arts in Northern California. Amy Leigh's work has been featured on The Best American Poetry blog, Turbine | Kapohau, SPORT, and drDOCTOR among others. Her work often explores themes of identity, loss, love, and migration. As an actress and speaker, Amy Leigh has been featured in performances, interviews and discussions, such as Radio New Zealand's Standing Room Only, and The Artist Well’s A Taste of Shakespeare.

Amy Leigh writes: 'My thesis "Confessional Transcendence: A Contemporary Mode of Poetic Creation", focused on the intersection of Confessional poetry of the 1960s and the Transcendental movement of the early 19th century; arguing that James K. Baxter's poetry epitomized this unlikely shared space. My findings were presented in a critical confessional mode, tracing personal literary and spiritual history (where they intersected), and shifting to register the profound effect of my engagement with New Zealand poet James K. Baxter. The creative component of my thesis applied the principles of "Confessional Transcendence" to a collection of poetry that found its home with Auckland University Press as The Dangerous Country of Love and Marriage.'

Read more

• Next Brave Thing: How to Write a Book
• Storia interview: From New York to New Zealand
• dD Series on Trauma and Recovery
• Auckland University Press: The Dangerous Country of Love and Marriage