About Malaika

Malaika King Albrecht served as the inaugural Heart of Pamlico Poet Laureate and is the author of four poetry 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. Main Street Rag also published her second book, Spill. 

Her poems have been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, and she has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. 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 Warsaw, Virginia, with her family and is an equine specialist in mental health and learning, a therapeutic riding instructor, a Reiki practitioner, and a yoga instructor at Freckles Farm. 

She facilitates a weekly book launch celebration for writers with new books. Over the past five years, she has hosted over 400 writers. Please view the video archives here. If you have a newly published book and would like to be the featured writer, please contact Malaika.