Paige Ellen Passantino is a poet from New Jersey, though Baltimore has been her home for the past twenty years. She is currently pursuing an MFA in poetry at Johns Hopkins University, where she also teaches creative writing. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar, a fellowship program for students who attend college at a non-traditional age. Paige is also a proud alumni of the Community College of Baltimore County. 

The recipient of the Academy of American Poets’ Anne Bradstreet Prize, Paige’s work appears in/on Poets.org, The Florida Review, Shō, Folio, and elsewhere. She is a nominee for 2026 Best of the Net, a finalist for the 2026 Mississippi Review prize, an honoree in the 2023 Adroit Prizes, and has received support from Tin House. She is the recipient of the Ruth Forbes Eliot Prize for poetry, a two-time recipient of the Ethel Olin Orbin prize for creative nonfiction, and has read for the Baltimore Review and the Massachusetts Review. Paige also teaches poetry workshops for incarcerated individuals with Project Poetic Justice, particularly in DC jails.

She is currently at work on her debut collection, The Sugar Baby Sonnets, along with a memoir and a novel about clowns.