Kizziah Burton

Kizziah Burton

Kizziah Burton (b. 1956, Jackson, Mississippi) grew up emersed in the folklore, storytelling, pathos, and mythic throughlines of the Faulknerian South knit into a landscape of forests, gardens, and swamps. She spent much of her professional life in Los Angeles working in the motion picture industry as a writer/associate producer for an award-winning travel show, and later as development executive to an executive producer/angel investor. She is the Creative of her own creative development consulting agency for creatives and innovators.

She apprenticed motion picture directing with American Director Leslie Linka Glatter and studied with Director Irwin Kershner. A graduate fellow of the University of Southern California, she was recipient of three education grants from the American Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Foundation. She holds a BA in Art History and Religion and MA in Creative Writing.

Burton has been selected as Finalist for the Gregory O’Donogue International Poetry Competition (2023), Third place for Mslexia Poetry Prize (2022), Highly Commended for Oxford Poetry Prize (2022), Commended for the Judge’s Prize – Magma Poetry Competition (2022/23), Commended for The National Poetry Competition (2021) and Second Place for Ledbury Poetry Competition (2020). She has been Shortlisted for The Bridport Prize (2022) and Aesthetica Creative Writing Award (2023). Burton has been longlisted in the Mslexia Pamphlet Competition (2023), National Poetry Competition (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022), the Sappho Prize For Women (2022 & 2020), Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition (2020).

Kizziah Burton’s poem ‘We Were Learning To Not Look Away But To Look Through It Like A Wind Eye‘ can be read on Poetry Society.