Born in Texas and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Dana studied poetry at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and dove into the D.C. writing scene to find company and guidance in the sometimes isolating experience of putting pen to paper. Now living in Santiago, Chile, she stays connected to her English-language writing roots through virtual workshops made possible (and popular) during the pandemic.
Dana’s debut poetry collection, The Dark Dance (just released in February 2023!), explores how a shared thread of compulsivity can link drinking behavior, intimacy, identity, and the almost manic process of healing through the vehicle of writing. You can read about her writing process here.
Her work is most heavily influenced by the confessional poets Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, though many other poets have had a profound impact on her—to name a few, Margaret Atwood, Melissa Broder, Andrea Gibson, and Sharon Olds. Dana is inspired by ecopoetics, surrealism, psychoanalytic theory, and spoken word, and likes to experiment with shape, ekphrastic, and found poetry. She is drawn to the juxtaposition of poem and photograph—all photos on this website are her own.
Dana’s poems have been featured in Abridged, AVATAR, the Hill Rag, and iNK BLOTS, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, two compilations from the DC Poetry Collective. She has also published collaborative poetry in Under the Basho and Failed Haiku: A Journal of English Senryu.
Dana is a member of Towpath Haiku and the DC Writers’ Salon, in addition to the aforementioned DC Poetry Collective. She also maintains an educational blog on alcohol sobriety.
Dana was featured in two poetry readings hosted by Lost City Books, an independent bookstore located in Adams Morgan. Check her out at 17:05 in the recording from August 2021 and at 28:30 in the recording from February 2021.
Dana Gittings 