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about me

I'm a writer of poetry, essay, and speculative/genre fiction; an educator with experience teaching across age levels; and a part-time social media manager and consultant. In August 2022, I became the Food Methodology Writer on the Research + Testing team at Dotdash Meredith, America's largest digital and print publisher.


I grew up in LaPlace, Louisiana-- the Andouille Capital of the World, smack in the middle of Cancer Alley. During my senior year of high school I moved on from writing fanfiction online to attending workshops at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). I earned my B.A in English from The University of New Orleans, where I spent a lot of time writing, volunteering with Amnesty International, and working for the campus Women's Center. In May 2019, I graduated with an M.F.A from The University of Alabama after defending my thesis, What Opens and Exits and Stitches Shut: A Memoir under the direction of Michael Martone. 

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In graduate school I held a number of positions-- an RA researching identity formation through American fashion; the program assistant who helped with incoming students, the reading series, and guest authors; tutoring at the Writing Center; teaching freshman composition, creative writing; working for youth writing programs; and reading for Black Warrior Review.  After being elected BWR's Nonfiction Editor in 2018, I helped produce Fall/Winter Volume 45.1 and Spring/Summer Volume 45.2.


Outside of school, I volunteered with multiple reproductive justice organizations, including clinic escorting, fundraising and event planning, and case management. I also began performing as half of an improvisatory sound duo with my partner, percussionist and composer Justin Greene. We've performed in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Ontario, and most recently at the 2019 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis, IN.


After graduation, I taught freshman composition at The University of Alabama-Birmingham, and Birmingham-Southern College. I was also a teaching fellow with the nonprofit Desert Island Supply Co., where I delivered poetry curriculum for 6th and 8th graders in Woodlawn schools, and developed after-school workshops for elementary students. In 2019 I became a fellow with Zoeglossia, a community for poets with disabilities.

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Aly Hansen, 2022
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