Born in Bethesda, MD to a sports-mad family, Addonizio moved to San Francisco in the late seventies, where she fell in love with poetry and read her work at open mics around the city. She has published four collections: The Philosopher’s Club, Jimmy & Rita, Tell Me, and What Is This Thing Called Love. Addonizio has also authored two novels, Little Beauties and My Dreams Out in the Street, as well as the story collection In the Box Called Pleasure.  She co-authored The Poet’s Companion: a Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry, and co-edited Dorothy Parker’s Elbow:  Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos.

Addonizio’s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award, the Mississippi Review Fiction Prize, and a Commonwealth Club Poetry Medal. Her collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/USA West Award. Her novel Little Beauties was chosen as a “Best Book of the Month” by the Book of the Month Club and was also a Target “Breakout Author” Selection.  Addonizio’s work has appeared widely in literary journals, anthologies, and textbooks.  She recently contributed essays to the anthologies Bad Girls and Dirty Words:  A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex.  She teaches in her home in Oakland, CA and around the country at writers’ conferences and festivals.