Srikanth Reddy is a poet, literary editor, and occasional book critic with an interest in inkblots, underworlds, erasures, and uncertain translations, among other topics. Since 2003, he has taught at the University of Chicago, where he offers courses on parody, obscenity, and contemporary literary publishing.

His latest book of poetry, Underworld Lit, was a finalist for the Griffin International Poetry Prize, the T.S. Eliot Four Quartets Prize, and a 2020 TLS Book of the Year. It has been described as “a multiverse, a few novels packed in one poetry collection, a delightful and ironic autobiography of a university professor of literature, a book full of disturbingly poetic moments and ironic quizzes, a guided tour to hell” (Griffin Prize judges’ citation). His previous book, Voyager, was named one of the best books of poetry in 2011 by The New Yorker, The Believer, and National Public Radio. His first collection, Facts for Visitors, won the 2005 Asian American Literary Award for Poetry. Excerpts and reviews of Underworld Lit, Voyager, and Facts for Visitors are available on his website.

Currently, Reddy serves as the poetry editor of The Paris Review and, along with Rosa Alcalá, Douglas Kearney, and Katie Peterson, edits the Phoenix Poets book series at the University of Chicago Press. In 2022, he guest-edited three special issues of Poetry magazine. These issues, along with his podcasts for the magazine—where topics like elevator operators, ghosts, and more are discussed—are available online.

Reddy occasionally writes about contemporary poetry for publications like The New York Times and Lana Turner. In 2012, Oxford University Press published his critical study, Changing Subjects: Digressions in Modern American Poetry. A book of his lectures on poetry, The Unsignificant: Three Talks on Poetry and Pictures, will be published by Wave Books in the future. His website invites visitors to explore these works and more.