Congratulations to William Trowbridge, Missouri’s newly appointed Poet Laureate! He’s the author, most recently, of Ship of Fool. His next collection, currently untitled, is due out in 2014. Read the press release from the Governor’s office here.

Elise Paschen was featured in Harvard Magazine in a great article about her career as a poet.

“Paschen’s poems are sharp arrows piercing some target in her personal landscape. Infidelities explores both the pleasures and hazards of eros, while the poems in Bestiary take animal life as both their ruling metaphor and, quite often, subject.”

To see the full article, click on the link here.

David Clewell, Poet Laureate of Missouri, gave an excellent review of William Trowbridge’s newest poetry collection Ship of Fool on Ron Slate’s website, On the Seawall. Focusing on a few of his favorite poems such as “Fool’s Family Album” and “Class of ’59”, Clewell comments:

“Now, once more into the breach comes Trowbridge, his sea-worthy Ship of Fool brimming with the exploits of a flexible character so wondrously based on the Fool archetype in literature, history, and popular culture —so drolly told in what amounts here to third-person perfection.”

For the full review, visit the link here. Scroll down towards the bottom for Trowbridge’s review, or enjoy the full list of spring poetry titles!

Red Hen Press is proud to announce that Elizabeth Bradfield’s collection Interpretive Work, published by Red Hen Press in 2008, won the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry.

Summer Brenner’s My Life in Clothes has received a very nice review in The Economist! The title of the piece? “You should be reading Summer Brenner.” We agree! They go on to say, “It is something that fans of Nora Ephron would be elated to discover, if they were to discover it, and which all bookstores and libraries should stock.” Read the whole thing here.

“Prophetic Outlook” [by Ernest Hilbert]

Prophetic Outlook

Crooks run the whole world, and the Dow just fell.

Crap rules the airwaves. All your best plans stall.

The air is dirty, and you don’t feel well.

Your wife won’t listen. Friends no longer call.

Sad songs from youth no longer cast a spell.

Cancer research has run into a wall.

Some inflated hack just won the Nobel.

You witness clear signs of decline and fall.

The neighbors are cold, and your house won’t sell.

Your cat has bad teeth. Your paychecks feel small.

Maybe you’re really sick. It’s hard to tell.

Up ahead, traffic has slowed to a crawl.

The world didn’t just start going to hell.

You just noticed for the first time, that’s all.

— Ernest Hilbert

originally in American Poetry Review

See Blog

Split This Rock named Tess Taylor’s The Forage House and Dan Vera’s Speaking Wiri Wiri under their annual poetry book recommendation list for 2013.

“Every so often there is a book of poetry that reminds us how well verse can speak history. Taylor, a white descendant of Thomas Jefferson…patches quotations, blanks, and context into a carefully tessellated structure.” –Oxford American

“Full of longing and bittersweet humor, these poems are lyrical, narrative, poignant, and always powerful. In his own search for who and what he really is, Vera has given us a true portrait of the confused and often contradictory place that is modern America.” –Linda Rodriguez Writes

Additionally, three of our upcoming spring books: The Love Project: A Marriage Made in Poetryby Wanda Coleman and Austin Straus, Patter by Douglas Kearney, and Once, Then by Andrea Scarpino were listed under the books they are eagerly anticipating for 2014.

See the full list here:

Split This Rock Recommended Poetry Books of 2013

Tar River Poetry gave a wonderful review of William Trowbridge’s Put This On, Please for their spring issue. He is praised for his skill of making poetry seem effortless and enjoyable for his readers:

“The work of William Trowbridge, across the past three decades, centering on deep Midwestern experience and encounters with mass media, has been cause for celebration, one of the best things about American poetry. He brings unwavering receptivity and artistic control to the rhythms and tonalities of American experience, and his transmutations of that control into language are incontestably and wonderfully his own. His new-and-selected Put This On, Please—‘this’ being a hospital gown—does nothing to change that. The book is another American triumph for this marvelous writer.”

To read the full review, purchase the journal here.

To purchase a copy of Put This On, Please– click here.

Camille Dungy is blogging for for Harriet

Poet David Mason, a professor of English at Colorado College, recently was named the 2009 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize recipient.

The $40,000 will allow Mason to focus more time on creating the libretto for the opera adaptation of his verse novel “Ludlow.”

The Creativity in Motion prize is a biennial prize honoring the creative process given by the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences.

Read More.

David Mason, author of Ludlow and News From the Village, has been named the next Poet Laureate of the great state of Colorado! Press release here. Some downloadabe info here.

From the Governer’s Office:

GOV. RITTER TO NAME NEW COLORADO POET LAUREATE ON JULY

Gov. Bill Ritter will name and introduce Colorado?s seventh poet laureate ? David Mason of Colorado Springs ? at a ceremony at the State Capitol on July 1. In addition to welcoming Mason as the state?s new poet laureate, Gov. Ritter and First Lady Jeannie Ritter will thank departing Poet Laureate Mary Crow for her many years of service and contributions to Colorado culture and arts.

WHAT: News conference introducing Colorado?s new poet laureate.

WHO: Gov. Ritter, First Lady Jeannie Ritter, incoming Poet Laureate David Mason, and departing Poet Laureate Mary Crow.

WHEN: 9:30 a.m., Thursday, July 1, 2010

WHERE: West Steps, State Capitol

Mason is currently a professor at Colorado College and he co-directs the Creative Writing program. His books of poems include The Buried Houses (winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize), The Country I Remember (winner of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award), and Arrivals. The Contemporary Poetry Review and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum named his verse novel, Ludlow the best poetry book of 2007. It also won the Colorado Book Award and was featured on the PBS News Hour.

Author of a collection of essays, The Poetry of Life and the Life of Poetry, Mason has also co-edited several textbooks and anthologies, including Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New Formalism, Twentieth Century American Poetry, and Twentieth Century American Poetics: Poets on the Art of Poetry. His next collection of essays, Two Minds of a Western Poet, will be published in 2011 by The University of Michigan Press in its Poets on Poetry series.

Mason will serve as an advocate for poetry, literacy and literature at 10-12 events each year, which include presenting the opening poem for the legislative session, visiting local schools, participating in Arts & Humanities Month, and reading at literary festivals.

Colorado was the second state in the nation to appoint a poet laureate. Alice Polk Hill was appointed in 1919 and served until she died in 1921. Nellie Burget Miller served 1923-1952; Margaret Clyde Robertson served 1952-1954; Milford E. Shields served 1954-1975; and Thomas Hornsby Ferril served 1979-1988. Mary Crow has served 14 years, from 1996-2010.

Ron Koertge reads with Andrea Scarpino and Mindy Nettifree at Beyond Baroque’s RED(D)DRESS series, curated by Red Hen’s own Brendan Constantine and filmed by the fine folks of Poetry.LA

Katharine Coles, the author Fault, as well as the forthcoming Flight and Reckless, has been named a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow! Congratulations, Kate! During her Guggenheim Fellowship period, she will be extending this work into a lyric examination of the history of Antarctic exploration. Read more about her exploits, and the other Guggenheim Fellows, here.

STEAM LAUNDRY by Red Hen Poet Nicole Stellon O’Donnell was chosen as the 2017-2018 Statewide Alaska Reads program featured selection! Congratulations, Nicole!

Congratulations to Red Hen author Loren W. Cooper! She was recently announced as a finalist for the 2018 Endeavor Award. The award “honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest.” The winner will be announced on November 9, 2018. Fingers crossed for Loren and CrossTown!