Adam Tavel was born in Clinton, Maryland and earned degrees from Lebanon Valley College, the University of Toledo, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is the author of four books of poetry, including the forthcoming Sum Ledger (Measure Press, 2021). He won the 2017 Richard Wilbur Award for his third poetry collection, Catafalque, which was published by the University of Evansville Press in 2018. He is a professor of English at Wor-Wic Community College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where he also directs the Echoes & Visions Reading Series.

His other books include The Fawn Abyss, published by Salmon Poetry in 2017, and Plash & Levitation, published by The University of Alaska Press in 2015 as winner of the Permafrost Book Prize in Poetry. The recipient of the 2010 Robert Frost Award from the Robert Frost Foundation, he is also the author of the chapbook Red Flag Up (Kattywompus, 2013).

Tavel received the 2018 Creative Achievement Award from his undergraduate alma mater, Lebanon Valley College. He served as the reviews editor for Plume from 2016-2017.

You can listen to his April 5th, 2018 reading at the Wicomico County Public Library here and his May 31st, 2019 interview on Delmarva Public Radio’s “Delmarva Today: Writer’s Edition” here. Additionally, you can listen to his talk celebrating the life and legacy of poet Gwendolyn Brooks here, which originally aired on Delmarva Public Radio on April 9th, 2020.

You can find him on Twitter at @fawnabyss.