Mary Biddinger

Mary Biddinger
Born (1974-05-14) May 14, 1974 (age 50)
Fremont, California
OccupationPoet, Editor, Academic
NationalityAmerican
Website
www.marybiddinger.com

Mary Biddinger (born May 14, 1974, in Fremont, California) is an American poet, editor, and academic.

Biography

Mary Biddinger received an Honors B.A. in English with a Creative Writing Subconcentration from the University of Michigan. She also holds an MFA in Poetry from Bowling Green State University, and a Ph.D. in English with Creative Dissertation from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Biddinger is the author of the poetry collections Prairie Fever (Steel Toe Books, 2007),[1] Saint Monica (Black Lawrence Press, 2011),[2] O Holy Insurgency (Black Lawrence Press, 2013),[3] and A Sunny Place with Adequate Water (Black Lawrence Press, 2014).[4] Her poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Copper Nickel, Crazyhorse, Guernica,[5] Gulf Coast, The Iowa Review, 32 poems, Ninth Letter, North American Review, Ploughshares,[6] and Third Coast. Biddinger is the recipient of a 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry.

She is a professor in the Department of English[7] at the University of Akron, and was Director of the NEOMFA: Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program from 2009 to 2012. Biddinger teaches courses in poetry writing, craft and theory of poetry, and literature.

Biddinger is the editor of the Akron Series in Poetry,[8] which sponsors the annual Akron Poetry Prize[9] and publishes three poetry collections every year. Biddinger also serves as co-editor, with John Gallaher, of the Akron Series in Contemporary Poetics at the University of Akron Press. The first volume, titled The Monkey and the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics, was published in January, 2011.

In 2007, Biddinger founded Barn Owl Review, an independent literary magazine published in Akron, Ohio.

Awards

  • National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry (2014)[10]
  • Two Ohio Arts Council Individual Creativity Excellence Awards[11]
  • Illinois Arts Council Literary Award (2005)[12]
  • Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences Service Award (2008)[13]

Works

  • Prairie Fever, 2007, Steel Toe Books
  • Saint Monica, 2011, Black Lawrence Press
  • O Holy Insurgency, 2013, Black Lawrence Press
  • A Sunny Place with Adequate Water, 2014, Black Lawrence Press
  • Small Enterprise, 2015, Black Lawrence Press
  • The Czar (with Jay Robinson), 2016, Black Lawrence Press
  • Partial Genius, 2019, Black Lawrence Press
  • Department of Elegy, 2022, Black Lawrence Press

References

  1. ^ "Steel Toe Books - Prairie Fever by Mary Biddinger". Archived from the original on March 5, 2009. Retrieved February 6, 2009.
  2. ^ "Saint Monica". April 2011.
  3. ^ "O Holy Insurgency". February 26, 2013.
  4. ^ "A Sunny Place with Adequate Water". May 15, 2014.
  5. ^ "Risk Management Memo: Continuing Education". November 2012.
  6. ^ "Read by Author | Ploughshares".
  7. ^ Biography. Biddinger uakron.edu [permanent dead link‍]
  8. ^ University of Akron Press. Poetry uakron.edu [dead link‍]
  9. ^ Poetry Prize University of Akron [dead link‍]
  10. ^ "Fall 2014 Literature Fellowships" (PDF). arts.gov. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
  11. ^ "UA in the News / Recent Headlines". The University of Akron, Ohio. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
  12. ^ Literary Awards state.il.us [dead link‍]
  13. ^ "University of Acron" (PDF). www.uakron.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2011.