Kasey Grady, who publishes under Kasey Perkins, is a teacher, freelance editor, and writer who completed her MFA in poetry from the University of Missouri - St. Louis in 2014.
She also holds a MA in English with a focus on writing pedagogy and a BA in English with a focus on composition, both from Truman State University. In 2014, she was the recipient of the 2014 Margaret Leong Children's Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Arcadia Ruby Irene Poetry Prize. During her time in Kirksville, MO, she was both a frequent performer and organizer in the poetry slam community. There, she taught freshman composition and creative writing at Truman State University and later freshman writing and sophomore literature at St. Charles Community College. She has also been a writing tutor for the University of Missouri St. Louis.
Overall, her poetry and poetry book reviews have appeared in the Chattahoochee Review, Chariton Review, Digital Americana, the Wisconsin Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, the Oracle, Lumina, and many more. Her first chapbook of poems, When the Dead Get Mail, was published by Finishing Line Press in January 2019. In addition to teaching Writing 1 and Food as Social Justice, Professor Grady currently serves as the faculty advisor for WU-SLam, Washington University's poetry slam team, and WuPR, the Washington University Political Review. She also works as a progress counselor for students on academic probation and on creating a stronger support system for first generation and low income college students (having been a first generation and low income college student herself). Her scholarly interests include memoirs, food writing, writing pedagogy, and pop culture adaptations of classic literature. When not engrossed in the world of reading and writing, she loves to cook, entertain, watch bad television, and spend time with her husband and their three children.