Chanel Brenner won the 2021 Press 53 Award for Poetry for Smile, or Else. She is also the author of Vanilla Milk: A Memoir Told in Poems, (Silver Birch Press, 2014), which was a finalist for the 2016 Independent Book Awards and honorable mention in the 2014 Eric Hoffer awards. Her poems have appeared in Rattle, Raleigh Review, New Ohio Review, Duende, Muzzle Magazine, Spry Literary Journal, Barrow Street, Salamander, Spoon River Poetry Review, Literary Mama, and others. Her poem, "Apology," won first place in the Smartish Pace Beullah Rose Poetry Prize (2018) and her poem, "July 28th, 2012" won first prize in The Write Place At the Write Time's contest, judged by Ellen Bass. Her essays have appeared in Modern Loss, The Good Men Project, and HerStry. She lives in Southern California with her husband and son.
