Aaron Banks is a 34-year-old poet born and raised in Rochester, NY, where he lives with his wife and daughters. He received an MFA from Warren Wilson in 2022. He currently works at the University of Rochester as an Academic Advisor for their McNair Scholars Program, and teaches a creative writing poetry workshop at The Rochester Institute of Technology. He had the opportunity to attend the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in the summer of 2024 and returned as part of the administrative staff for the summer of 2025 and 2026. He is seeking publication of his first poetry collection, Cottonwood Man. Poems from this collection have been published in Leavings Literary Magazine, Zócalo Public Square, The Swannanoa Review, A Dozen Nothing and forthcoming in Obsidian (TBA) .