Education

M.F.A. Creative Writing - Poetry, Cornell University

Graduate Minor: Asian American Studies

Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines, David L. Picket Thesis Fellowship, Mellon Fellowship for the Urban Justice Lab, Graduate School Research Travel Grant, East Asia Research Travel Grant

M.A. English - Creative Writing, Kansas State University
Graduate Certificate: Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies

Edwards Scholarship for Academic Excellence, International Leadership Award, International Student Center Scholarship, Alumni Association International Student Scholarship, Departmental Graduate Professional Development Award, Graduate Student Support Scholarship, Triota Women’s Studies National Academic Honor Society

B.A. English - Creative Writing, Franklin & Marshall College

Dean’s List, Honors List, Nolt Music Award for Musical Excellence, Honaman Japanese Study Fund Award, Mu Upsilon Sigma Music Honors Society, Phi Sigma Pi Honors Fraternity

Extended Bio

Born in Zibo, China in 1995, Winniebell Xinyu Zong is a poet and chapbook editor at Newfound Press. Her recent poems are forthcoming or have appeared in Poetry, Crazyhorse (now Swamp Pink), The Southern Review, and Meridian, among others. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, Best of Net, and AWP’s Intro Journals Project, Zong was the 2020 poetry winner of Columbia Journal’s “Womxn’s History Month Special Issue,” a semi-finalist for the 2022 92NY Discovery Poetry Prize, and a finalist for the Palette Poetry 2022 Emerging Poets Prize. 

In 2018, Zong earned her B.A. in English from Franklin & Marshall College. Having studied creative writing in the U.S. since 2014, Zong aspired to write about overcoming on foreign land. She came to understand solidarity through her maternal bloodline, whose power churned her literature into a rhythmic desire for justice. Her recent work seeks to re-examine intergenerational trauma, sexual assault, and self-care through the lens of recognizing systemic oppression. Zong strives to gather the confessional nature of womanly kinship through surprising and meaningful imagery, visual presentation in form and pattern, and intentional word choice. She hopes her poems reach readers physically—a breath in the gut, a furrow of the fist, a crawling on the skin.

As the 2020 Frontier Poetry editorial fellow, Zong created and solicited for the “Director Insights” interview series, selected new poetry books to conduct author interviews on for “How It’s Made” and “Poet in the Mirror,” and maintained a vibrant Twitter presence for Frontier. She enjoyed working closely with the editorial team to discover exceptional pieces.

In spring 2021, Zong served as a publishing intern at Copper Canyon Press, where she read for manuscript submissions and worked on independent and collaborative projects in editing, marketing, fundraising, production, and publicity for upcoming collections. Additionally, she helped plan monthly DEI dialogues and advocated for equity-minded furtherance of the intern program. 

Zong earned an MA from Kansas State University in 2021, where she received the Seaton Fellowship for Graduate Students in Creative Writing, the Edwards Scholarship for Academic Excellence, and the International Leadership Award, among others. As the editor-in-chief of Touchstone Literary Magazine, she transformed the locally circulated print magazine into an online platform committed to amplifying underrepresented voices. Under her stewardship, Touchstone reopened its submission access internationally and initiated practices to offer every contributor an honorarium, free submissions for BIPOC writers, and the soliciting of authors’ audio recordings for access equity. One of the nonfiction pieces she accepted, edited, and nominated for, written by Yuko Taniguchi, won Best of the Net.

Zong earned her MFA in poetry at Cornell University in 2023, where she was a recipient of the David L. Picket Thesis Fellowship, the Mellon Foundation Fellowship for the Urban Justice Lab, East Asia Research Travel Grant, and Graduate School Research Travel Grant. She read for Epoch during her first year and taught ENGL 1160: “Intersections: Race, Writing, and Power” through BIPOC poetics and power narratives. She currently teaches creative writing and composition as a lecturer at Cornell University.

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Literary Editing

Newfound Press

chapbook editor (2021 – present)

●  Edited Transuding by Yunkyo Moon-Kim, winner of the 2022 Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize

●  Edited Soil Called a Country by Grace Zhou, winner of the 2023 Emerging Poets Chapbook Series

●  Edited Spells of My Name by I.S. Jones, winner of the 2021 Emerging Poets Chapbook Series

●  Read entries & select the winning manuscripts for the two Newfound annual chapbook series

●  Promote the books via social media & other publicity duties

Cow Creek Chapbook Prize

editorial staff (2020 – present)

●  Evaluate & select first tier & second tier manuscripts for the chapbook prize

Touchstone Literary Magazine

editor-in-chief (Summer 2020 – Spring 2021), poetry editor (Fall 2019 – Spring 2020)

●  Transformed the locally circulated magazine into a fully online platform that is committed to amplifying underrepresented voices by opening submissions internationally, offering every contributor an honorarium & free submission for BIPOC writers, & soliciting audio recording for literature from contributors

●  Lead the editorial, communicatory, and web design initiatives for Touchstone’s debut digital annual issue: Spring 2021 Issue & other publications, including personally designing the issue cover, the full landing page, & individual posts during production

●  Registered the platform on Submittable & CLMP & created “The Debut Prize” series for unpublished writers 

●  Designed new website & manage social media accounts among other community & publicity outreach

●  Drafted the “Touchstone Handbook” for future mastheads

EPOCH Magazine

assistant editor (2021 – 2022)

●  Evaluate & select first tier & second tier manuscripts for poetry & fiction

Copper Canyon Press

spring 2021 publishing intern

●  Engaged in independent & collaborative projects in editing, marketing, fundraising, production, & publicity

●  Read & evaluated at least 5 manuscripts weekly & composed AI docs for upcoming books

●  Advocated and planned for monthly racial equity dialogues & intern program restructuring for equity

Frontier Poetry

editorial fellow/associate editor (January 2020 to February 2021), poetry reader (March 2019 to January 2020)

●  Created and solicited for the “Director Insights” interview series, which answers highly requested questions from potential applicants, in the perspectives of Directors from the best MFA programs

●  Selected & reviewed new poetry books & solicited author interviews for two series: “How It’s Made” & “Poet in the Mirror,” both of which demystify the book-making process & the lives of today’s best poets

●  Generated posts for & managed the @FrontierPoetry Twitter, which grew 2,000+ followers in my tenure

●  Short-listed chapbook contests & discovered exceptional pieces for the “New Voices” submissions 

Pleiades: Literature in Context

associate editor (July 2020 – January 2021), poetry reader (December 2019 – July 2020)

●  Edited print issues, selected poems for online features, & suggested BIPOC writers for work solicitation

●  Communicated with & solicited contracts from contributors

●  Read poetry submissions

Teaching & Tutoring Experiences

Lecturer, Cornell University

Fall 2023 – Present

• ENGL 2810: Creative Writing

• ENGL 1134: True Stories — “Poetic Justice”

Graduate Instructor, Cornell University

Fall 2022 – Spring 2023

• ENGL 1160: Intersections: Race, Writing, and Power —“Writing on the Other Side—Power Narratives & BIPOC Poetics”

Writing Center tutor, Kansas State University

Spring 2020 – Spring 2021

• Provided writing consultation services for undergraduate, graduate, & faculty clients 8 hours per week via in-person, online written feedbacks, & live video tutoring

Instructor, ELLIPSIS WRITING

Summer 2023

• Advanced Poetry Workshop: “Fiery, Futures, & Fun!: Learning to Transform & Create Poetic Forms”

Graduate Instructor, Kansas State University

Fall 2019 – Fall 2020 (4 sections, 71 students)

• ENGL 200: "Expository Writing II”

eAdviser, College Advising Corps

September 2018 – June 2019

• Advised 200 low-mid-income high school students from Michigan via phone/video calls, emails, texts, & newsletters

• Supported their matriculation journey in areas such as college awareness, course selection, SAT/ACT, FAFSA, scholarships, financial aid, starter college list, college application & essays, & career & major exploration