Gabriel Dunsmith is a poet and musician from Asheville, North Carolina. He holds a B.A. in environmental studies from Vassar College and has lived in Reykjavík, Iceland, since 2018.

His poems have appeared in Poetry, Tikkun, Lake Effect, Hunger Mountain, Appalachian Review, and elsewhere. He is a Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize finalist and Pushcart Prize nominee.

In Iceland, he is a producer for the reading series Reykjavík Poetics, which is hosted at the artist-run music venue Mengi and sponsored by the Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature (Bókmenntaborgin). In addition, he has put on intimate readings for the local perfumery Fischersund.

He has curated events featuring Sjón, Ocean Vuong, Ólöf Arnalds, and Anne Carson, recipient of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature.

He has given readings and performances in Reykjavík and at the annual Magn tímafars festival in South Iceland, as well as collaborated with the artists Claudia Hausfeld and Hannes Lárusson.

His essays and letters have appeared in The Guardian, grist.org, and The New Yorker.

He plays mountain dulcimer in the traditional Appalachian duo Lonesome Hunter.

photo: Hildegard Hansen