Erika Meitner’s poetry plays with the idea of overlooked but vital spaces, from malls and suburban developments to women’s bodies. Meitner graduated from Dartmouth in 1996 and earned an MFA in 2001 from the University of Virginia, where she is studying for a doctorate in religious studies. This focus on religion often finds its way into her poems, such as “And After the Ark,” where the story of Noah becomes a lens for the devastating floods of climate change. While she now teaches poetry in the MFA program at Virginia Tech, Meitner previously taught Hebrew school and public school. In the tradition of modern poets, her first several collections were published through contests for literary awards: Her first collection, Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore, won the Robert Dana Anhinga Prize in 2002, while her second book, Ideal Cities, won the 2009 National Poetry Series competition. Her third book, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls, was published in 2011, followed by Copia in 2014. In 2015 Meitner became a Fulbright scholar at Queens University Belfast.