Ciara Totton was born and raised in Spokane. She studied in Southern California at Azusa Pacific University and graduated with a Political Science degree. She taught English for three years in a rural town in South Korea and moved to New Zealand in 2020 where she lived and worked nearly three years.
Her poetry examines the experiences of grief, empowerment, loss, and identity. These themes are explored through the immersive lens of nature and the body. Her poetry gives voice to parts of the self which are often disregarded and buried. It defines empowerment and freedom through vulnerability and honesty about life’s most unsavory parts.
Her work has appeared in The Faoileánach Journal,Beyond Words International Journal, and Moss. She has published work in Down River, Deep Root: A Spokane Poets Anthology and Winter in America anthology. She is a regular contributor to Spokane Public Radio’s The Poetry Moment. She has been a featured artist at events Emerge, Terrain, Foray for the Arts and Get Lit.
Her debut collection, Bodies in Reduction, is out now and available for purchase online and in bookstores. Lauded for her “artfully ferocious poems” (J. Johnson) and their “realistic reveal of hope as it quietly blossoms (S.Rooney), she is the inaugural winner of Charles Potts Poetry Award.