I’m Ava Pardue, the founder of AllPoets.

My passion for poetry started in second grade, when I found a disused copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses in my school’s library. I’ve been reading and writing poetry ever since then, and have been published in several magazines, including Ekstasis Magazine (run by Christianity Today) and Pen&Quill.

I also realized as early as second grade that poetry is rarely celebrated in modern culture. I seemed to be the odd one out, memorizing Robert Frost and writing sonnets in my free time. No one I knew—not even my teachers—loved poetry the way I did. And I wanted to change that. AllPoets sprung from that desire.

When not curating poetry and resources here, I also spend time learning about languages and theology, teaching middle schoolers, and baking bread. I am currently studying at Wheaton College in Illinois.