Lisa Russ Spaar is a contemporary American poet, professor, and essayist. She is currently a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia and the director of the Area Program in Poetry Writing.[1] She is the author of numerous books of poetry, most recently Vanitas, Rough: Poems and Satin Cash: Poems. Her latest collection, Orexia, was published by Persea Books in 2017. Her poem, Temple Gaudete, published in IMAGE Journal, won a 2016 Pushcart Prize.

Lisa Russ Spaar
Occupationprofessor, University of Virginia
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Virginia
Genrepoetry

Spaar has also edited several anthologies, including All That Mighty Heart: London Poems, which Billy Collins says "gathers [a] mighty swirl of poetry into a gorgeous volume whose variety and heft rival the city itself— its smoke, roar, and flow."[2]

Education edit

Spaar graduated summa cum laude from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in 1978. Two years later, in 1980, she returned to the University of Virginia to complete her education with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry).

Poetry edit

Spaar's books of poetry include Orexia (2017),[3] Vanitas, Rough (2012), Satin Cash: Poems 2008, Blue Venus (2004), and Glass Town (1999), for which she won the Rona Jaffe Award for Emerging Women Writers in 2000.

Spaar's poems have been widely published in many places, including Boston Review,[4] Poetry,[5] Ploughshares,[6] The Paris Review,[7] SLATE,[8] The Virginia Quarterly Review,[9] IMAGE Journal,[10] Plume,[11] The Alabama Literary Review,[12] Blackbird,[13] Spirituality & Health, Cerise Press,[14] Connotations Press,[15] Waxwing,[16] TUBA, 32 Poems,[17] Shenandoah,[18] TriQuarterly,[19] The Kenyon Review,[20] The Yale Review,[21] Denver Quarterly, Quarterly West,[22] Verse, Poetry East, Drunken Boat,[23] The Hollins Critic, The Southwest Review, Crazyhorse, The Laurel Review, Bellingham Review,[24] College English,[25] Meridian,[26] Brilliant Corners,[27] The Atlanta Review, The Southern Poetry Review,[28] Poet Lore, Free Verse,[29] Carolina Quarterly, American Literary Review, 64, Indiana Review,[30] Smartish Pace,[31] & elsewhere.

Prose edit

Currently, Spaar writes a series of articles entitled "Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry," published through the Los Angeles Review of Books.[32]

Spaar has contributed more than 70 articles to the Chronicle of Higher Education, including the Monday's Poem series[33] and the Spaar on Poetry series.[34]

Teaching edit

Spaar has received numerous teaching honors and awards.

Awards edit

Bibliography edit

  • Past grief. University of Virginia. 1982.
  • Cellar. Alderman Press. 1983.
  • Blind Boy on Skates, Trilobite Chapbooks of the University of Northern Texas Press, 1987.
  • Glass Town, poems. Red Hen Press. 1999. ISBN 978-1-888996-18-0.
  • Acquainted With the Night: Insomnia Poems. Columbia University Press. Fall 1999. ISBN 978-0-231-11544-5.
  • Blue Venus: Poems, Persea Books, 2004.
  • The Land of Wandering, University of Virginia Press, 2005
  • All That Mighty Heart: London Poems (ed.). University of Virginia Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0-8139-2717-6.
  • Satin Cash: Poems. Persea Books. 2008. ISBN 978-0-89255-343-3.
  • Vanitas, rough : poems. New York: Persea Books. 2012.
  • The Hide-and-Seek Muse: Annotations of Contemporary Poetry. Drunken Boat Media. 2013. ISBN 978-0988241602.
  • Monticello in Mind: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Jefferson, University of Virginia Press, 2016
  • Orexia: Poems. Persea Books. 2017.
  • More Truly & More Strange: 100 Contemporary Self-Portrait Poems, Persea Books, 2020
  • Madrigalia: New and Selected Poems, Persea Books, 2021
  • Paradise Close,Persea Books, 2022

Anthologies edit

Criticism edit

List of poems edit

Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
Trailing Mary and Martha: 3AM
  • Spaar, Lisa Russ (2012). Vanitas, rough : poems. New York: Persea Books.
  • Spaar, Lisa Russ (January–February 2013). "Trailing Mary and Martha: 3AM". Poetry. Spirituality & Health. 15 (6): 20.

References edit

  1. ^ "Department of English". Engl.virginia.edu. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  2. ^ http://books.upress.virginia.edu/detail%2Fbooks%2Fgroup-3573.xml?q=all%20that%20... Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Persea Books". Persea Books. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  4. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar". Boston Review. July 12, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  5. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar". Poetry Foundation. October 11, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  6. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar | Ploughshares". www.pshares.org. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  7. ^ "Writers, Poetry, Poets, Verse, Creative Writing – Paris Review". www.theparisreview.org. Archived from the original on May 5, 2013.
  8. ^ Spaar, Lisa (May 24, 2011). ""The Irises"". Slate. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  9. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar". VQR Online. June 26, 2007. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  10. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar". Image Journal. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  11. ^ "The Plume Anthology of Poetry 2013". MadHat Press. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  12. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar" (PDF). Alabama Literary Review. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  13. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar, Blackbird". blackbird.vcu.edu. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  14. ^ "Cerise Press › Soul Cake". www.cerisepress.com. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  15. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar - Poetry". ConnotationPress.com. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  16. ^ "Waxwing Literary Journal: American writers & international voices". waxwingmag.org. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  17. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar, Going to Bed, 32 Poems 4.2". Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  18. ^ Spaar, Lisa Russ. "Lisa Russ Spaar | Volume 62, Number 1". Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  19. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar". TriQuarterly. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  20. ^ "Kismet". March 4, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  21. ^ "Yale Review | vol. 93, no. 3". Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  22. ^ "Quarterly West".
  23. ^ "Drunken Boat | Lisa Russ Spaar". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  24. ^ "Issue 42". December 2, 1997.
  25. ^ "NCTE - National Council of Teachers of English".
  26. ^ "Verse Daily: No Picnic by Lisa Russ Spaar". www.versedaily.org. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  27. ^ "Sample Texts".
  28. ^ "Volume 38, Issue 1". Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  29. ^ "Free Verse - Lisa Russ Sparr". Archived from the original on July 10, 2009. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  30. ^ "Blackberries". March 4, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  31. ^ "Media | Smartish Pace (A poetry review)". Archived from the original on September 11, 2015. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  32. ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  33. ^ "Monday's Poem: 'My Meadow, My Twilight,' by Carl Phillips". November 14, 2010.
  34. ^ "SPAAR ON WRITING: Cabin Fever". February 5, 2012.
  35. ^ "Best Channel Letters Louisville, KY | Channel Letter Signage Near Me". www.louisvillesignage.com. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  36. ^ "Lisa Russ Spaar - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  37. ^ Weeks, Linton (November 12, 2000). "Book Report". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 10, 2015.