About Malaika

Malaika King Albrecht is serving as the inaugural Heart of Pamlico Poet Laureate and is the author of four books. Her most recent book The Stumble Fields published by Main Street Rag was a finalist in the 2021 Eric Hoffer Award. Her book What the Trapeze Artist Trusts is available at Press 53 and won honorable mention in the Oscar Arnold Young Award. Her chapbook Lessons in Forgetting was published by Main Street Rag and was a finalist in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and received honorable mention in the Brockman Campbell Award. Her second book Spill was also published by Main Street Rag.

Her poems have been published in many literary magazines and anthologies and nominated for Pushcarts. Her poems have won awards in several contests, including at Poetry Southeast, the North Carolina Poetry Council, Salem College and Press 53.

She’s the founding editor of Redheaded Stepchild, an online magazine that only accepts poems that have been rejected elsewhere. She lives in Ayden, N.C. with her family and is a therapeutic riding instructor, a reiki practitioner, and a yoga instructor at Freckles Farm.