Lia Purpura (born February 22, 1964 Mineola, New York) is American poet, writer and educator.
Lia Purpura is the author of three collections of poems, two collections of essays and one collection of translations. On Looking (essays, Sarabande Books, 2006) was a Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Towson University Prize in Literature. King Baby (poems, Alice James Books, 2008) won the Beatrice Hawley Award and was a finalist for the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award and the Maine Literary Award. Increase (essays, University of Georgia Press, 2000) won the Associated Writing Programs Award in Creative Nonfiction. Stone Sky Lifting (poems, Ohio State University Press, 2000) won the OSU Press/The Journal Award. The Brighter the Veil (poems, Orchises Press, 1996) won the Towson University Prize in Literature. Poems of Grzegorz Musial: Berliner Tagebuch and Taste of Ash (translations, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press) was published in 1998.
Her recent essays "Glaciology" and “The Lustres” were awarded Pushcart prizes in 2007 and 2009, and other essays were named "Notable Essays" in Best American Essays, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Lia Purpura is also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship (translation, Warsaw, Poland), and a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.
Her poems and essays appear in Agni Magazine, DoubleTake, Field, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, Orion, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Parnassus: Poetry in Review, Ploughshares, Southern Review and many other magazines.
A graduate of Oberlin College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Teaching/Writing Fellow in Poetry, Lia Purpura is Writer-in-Residence at Loyola University in Baltimore, MD and teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop Low-Residency MFA Program. Recent visiting appointments include The Bedell Visiting Writer at the University of Iowa's MFA Program in Nonfiction; Coal Royalty Visiting Professor at the University of Alabama’s MFA Program; Reader/Lecturer at the Bennington Writing Program, and Visiting Writer at the Warren and Patricia Benson Forum on Creativity at Eastman Conservatory. She lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband, conductor Jed Gaylin, and their son, Joseph.
A graduate of Oberlin College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop where she was a Teaching / Writing Fellow in Poetry, she is currently Writer-in-Residence at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland; and is also on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop low-residency MFA Program in Tacoma, Washington. She lives in Baltimore, MD, with her husband and son.
Awards
editHer most recent book is a collection of poems, King Baby (Alice James Books, 2008), which won the 2007 Beatrice Hawley Award [1].
Purpura's collection of essays, On Looking (Sarabande Books), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2007. She was named 2004 Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio. Her essay “Autopsy Report” was a “Notable Essay” in Best American Essays: 2004, and her essay “Glaciology” was awarded a 2005 Pushcart Prize.
A Fulbright Fellowship allowed her to spend a year in Poland translating Poems of Grzegorz Musial: Berliner Tagebuch and Taste of Ash.[2] Purpura has been awarded a Millay Colony Fellowship, multiple fellowship residencies at The MacDowell Colony, and at Blue Mountain Center. She is the winner of the Visions International Prize in Translation, and the Randall Jarrell Prize for poetry given by the North Carolina Writers’ Network and chosen by Mary Oliver.
Published Works
editPoetry Collections
- King Baby (Alice James Books, 2008)
- Stone Sky Lifting (Ohio State University Press, 2000)
- The Brighter the Veil (Orchises Press, 1996)
Essay Collections
- On Looking (Sarabande Books, 2006)
- Increase (University of Georgia Press, 2000)
Translations
- Poems of Grzegorz Musial: Berliner Tagebuch and Taste of Ash (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998)
Awards and honors
editReferences
edit- ^ Alice James Books Website > Beatrice Hawley Award Winners
- ^ Sarabande Books > Author Page > Lia Purpura
- ^ Towson University Website > Newsroom
- ^ 2004 Grant Awards - Literature Fellowships (Prose)
- ^ The AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction > List of Winners
- ^ The Ohio State University Press > Ohio State University Press/The Journal Award