Amanda Bennett

Amanda Bennett, PhD is a poet, scholar, and public humanities practitioner based in Carrboro, North Carolina, where she currently serves as Poet Laureate. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies and Literature from Duke University and works at the intersection of Black feminist theory, spiritual practice, and creative writing.

She is the creator of Confessionalist Rootwork, a framework that treats writing as a technology of survival, truth-telling, and transformation. Her work centers the interior lives of Black women and femmes, exploring how listening, desire, and community become conditions for wholeness rather than self-erasure.

In addition to her creative practice, Amanda collaborates across UNC–Chapel Hill’s Arts & Humanities initiatives, building community-rooted writing spaces that bridge scholarship and lived experience.

Her debut chapbook, Working the Roots (Querencia Press, 2025), explores ancestry, tenderness, and the architecture of longing.