Karen Holmberg

Poet

Author's Bio

Karen Holmberg was born and raised in Connecticut, near the Long Island Sound.

Her two prize-winning poetry volumes are The Perseids (University of North Texas Press) and Axis Mundi(BkMk Press). individual poems have appeared widely in literary magazines, including Interim, Southern Poetry Review, and New South.

In addition to writing poetry, she writes and publishes lyric essays and art criticism, with work appearing in At Length, Tupelo Quarterly, and the Notting Hill Editions Prize anthology. Her first young adult novel, The Collagist, won the 2021 Acheven Prize and was published by Regal Press/Fitzroy Editions in 2024.

A member of the MFA in Creative Writing faculty at Oregon State University, she teaches courses in poetry writing, literature, and letterpress printing and printing history.

Education: 
University of California, Irvine MFA
University of Missouri PhD

Publications & Prizes

Books:
Axis Mundi (BkMk Press-UMKC, 2013)
,
The Perseids (University of North Texas Press, 2001)
Prizes won: 

Hawthornden Fellowship, 2022. An award allowing a one month writing residency at Hawthornden Castle in Lasswade, Midlothian, Scotland.

Achevan Prize for Young Adult Fiction. $750 award and publication of the novel by Fitzroy Books/Regal House Press, 2021

Vivian Shipley Award for Poetry, 3rd place, $100 and publication in Connecticut River Review, 2021

Guy Owen Prize for Poetry. $1000 and publication in Fall 2020 issue of Southern Poetry Review, selected by R.T. Smith, 2020

Fourth River Folio Contest for Poetry, runner up, selected by Alison Joseph. Poem published in on-line edition of The Fourth River, 2019

Briar Cliff Review Nonfiction Prize for “‘The Very Worst Ache Is Not Knowing Why’: Remembering Madame Cluny,” $1000 and publication in Spring 2020 issue of Briar Cliff Review, 2019

Notting Hill Essay Prize, Finalist. $1250 and publication of “‘In My Head I Carry My Own Zoo’: the Collage Work of John Digby” in the prize anthology. Ceremony in London, England, June 2017

Notable Essay, Best American Essays 2013, for “Songs and Calls of the Human Species”

Notable Essay, Best American Essays 2012, for “In the Museum of the Body, Alone”

John Ciardi Poetry Prize, $1000 and poetry book publication by BkMk Press, 2012

Vassar Miller Prize, $1000 and poetry book publication by the University of North Texas Press, 2000

Discovery/The Nation Award for Poetry, 1996.  Selected by Robert Pinsky, Tom Sleigh, Heather McHugh

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Prefers to work with: 
Any
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Last update: Dec 28, 2024