Amber (Decker) Koch grew up in the mountains of West Virginia, where she still lives and writes. She has performed her work in theaters, coffee shops, laundromats, dive bars, and record stores across the country—from New York to New Orleans to Portland to Los Angeles and back again.

She is a recipient of the annual Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, presented by LA’s Cultural Weekly, and has served multiple times as a judge for the annual Poetry Superhighway contest. In 2024, she was invited to open for Barbara Kingsolver during the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s only tour stop of the year in Barboursville, West Virginia.

Her latest collection, Appalachian Gothic: Poems Inspired by the Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe, explores Appalachian landscape, grief, and folklore in conversation with the work of Edgar Allan Poe.