John Hoppenthaler

Poet

Raleigh, NC
North Carolina US
Twitter/X: 

Author's Bio

John Hoppenthaler is the author of four books of poetry, Night Wing over Metropolitan Area, Domestic Garden, Anticipate the Coming Reservoir and Lives of Water, all with Carnegie Mellon University Press. With Kazim Ali, he has co-edited Jean Valentine: This World Company (Michigan UP). His poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, McSweeney's, Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, Christian Science Monitor, Barrow Street, The Laurel Review, Copper Nickel, Blackbird, Subtropics, The Literary Review, Southeast Review, the anthologies September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (Etruscan Press, 2002), Blooming through the Ashes: An International Anthology on Violence and the Human Spirit (Rutgers UP, 2008), Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005), Poetry Calendar (Alhambra Publishing, 2006-2012), A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (U of Akron P, 2012), Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina (U of Carolina P, 2013), The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. VII, North Carolina (Texas Review Press, 2014), Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Fiction and Poetry From West Virginia (WVUP),  2017), Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath (Press 53, 2021), You Are the River (North Carolina Museum of Art, 2021), The Southern Poetry Antholgy Vol. IX, Virginia (Texas Review Press, 2022), Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States (Paloma Press, 2023), and in many other publications. His essays, interviews, and essay/reviews appear in such journals as New York Magazine ("The Cut"), Arts & Letters, Southeast Review, Chelsea, Bellingham Review, Pleiades, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poetry, North Carolina Literary Review, Cortland Review, and Kestrel, where he served as Poetry Editor for twelve years. For nine years he served as Personal Assistant to Toni Morrison. He has read his poetry at Bucknell, Virginia Commonwealth, Hollins, West Virginia University, University of Stirling, The Dodge Poetry Festival, Emory, the Chautauqua Institution, Widener, University of Louisville, Florida State University, the University of South Carolina, the KGB Bar, the University of Texas-El Paso, Towson University, Carnegie Mellon University, the Sanibel Island Writer's Conference, the University of Minnesota, Manhattan College, Auburn University, Cal State Northridge University, Mary Washington University, and elsewhere.

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
Blooming through the Ashes (Rutgers University Press, 2008)
,
Poetry Calendar (Alhambra Publishing, 2006)
,
Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005)
,
September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (Etruscan Press, 2002)
Books:
Night Wing over Metropolitan Area (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2023)
,
Domestic Garden (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2015)
,
Jean Valentine: This World Company (The University of Michigan Press, 2015)
,
Anticipate the Coming Reservoir (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2008)
,
Lives of Water (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2003)
Journals:
Barrow Street
,
Bloomsbury Review
,
Chatauqua Literary Journal
,
Chelsea
, ,
McSweeney's Internet Tendency
, , , , ,
The Potomac
,
Prizes won: 

Among his honors are an Individual Artist Grant from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, grants from the New York Foundation on the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts,  Residency Fellowships from The Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, the MacDowell Colony, the Elizabeth Bishop House, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Dairy Hollow Writer's Colony, and the East Carolina University 5-Year Reasearch and Creativity Award.

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Toni Morrison

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Prefers to work with: 
Adults, Teenagers
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Brooklyn, NY
New York
Raised in: 
New City, NY
New York
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Sep 09, 2023