Aaron Banks is a poet born and raised in Rochester, NY. He received an MFA from Warren Wilson in 2022. He currently works at the University of Rochester as an Academic Coach for their McNair Scholars Program. He seeks publication for his his first poetry collection, Cottonwood Man. Poems from this collection have been published in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, A Dozen Nothing Leavings Literary Magazine, Zócalo Public Square, and The Swannanoa Review.