Ruth Ellen Kocher facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ruth Ellen Kocher
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| Born | July 26, 1965 Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania U.S. |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Penn State University Arizona State University |
| Genre | Poetry |
Ruth Ellen Kocher, born on July 26, 1965, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is a talented American poet. She has won several important awards for her poetry, including the PEN Open Book Award. She has also received special grants and support from groups like the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently, she is a Professor of English at the University of Colorado - Boulder. She also helps lead the College of Arts and Sciences as an Associate Dean.
Contents
About Ruth Ellen Kocher's Poetry
Ruth Ellen Kocher is a well-known American poet. She has written many books of poetry. Some of her famous collections include Third Voice, Ending in Planes, and domina Un/blued. Her poems have been shared in many different ways. They have been translated into other languages, like Persian, and published in literary magazines.
Her poems also appear in various collections of poetry called anthologies. These include Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry and Black Nature. Her work has been featured in many journals too.
What Makes Her Poetry Special
One of Ruth Ellen Kocher's books, domina Un/blued, won the Dorset Prize in 2010. When people reviewed this book, they often talked about how she used the page design in a creative way. The way she placed words on the page added an important layer to her poems.
Ruth Ellen Kocher has mentioned that her writing often uses a "multiple voice." This means she uses different voices in her poems. She does this to show all the different experiences women can have. These voices might represent a mother, a daughter, or someone from a different background. By using many voices, she helps readers connect with her poems.
Education and Teaching
Ruth Ellen Kocher studied at several universities. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), from Pennsylvania State University in 1990. Later, she received her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in 1994 from Arizona State University. She also earned her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 1999.
She has taught at several universities throughout her career. These include Missouri Western State University, Southern Illinois University, and the University of Missouri.
Her Career Journey
Ruth Ellen Kocher's career combines two main areas: writing poetry and doing scholarly research. She believes that both activities help her grow and improve in the other. She has received special support from organizations like the Cave Canem Foundation and Yaddo.
She has also taught at various writing programs. These include the New England College Low Residency MFA program and the Indiana Summer Writer's workshop. Today, she is a Professor of English literature at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She also serves as an Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities there.
Awards and Recognition
Ruth Ellen Kocher has received many awards for her poetry. These awards recognize her talent and important contributions to literature.
- 2014 PEN Open Book Award for her book domina Un/blued
- 2010 Dorset Prize for her book domina Un/blued
- 2002 Green Rose Prize in Poetry for When the Moon Knows You're Wandering
- 1999 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award for Desdemona's Fire
Selected Books and Poems
Here are some of the books and poems Ruth Ellen Kocher has written:
- "Alice Coltrane and Discovers the World G/god is B/born", Blackbird, Fall 2009
- "string theory", Blackbird, Fall 2009
- One Girl Babylon (New Issues Press, 2003) ISBN: 978-1-930974-33-3
- When the Moon Knows You're Wandering (New Issues Press, 2002) ISBN: 978-1-930974-11-1
- Desdemona's Fire (Lotus Press, 1999) ISBN: 978-0-916418-83-0
Poems in Anthologies
Her poems have also been included in these collections:
- Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poets. Charles Rowell, ed.
- IOU: New Writing On Money. Ron Slate, ed.
- Black Nature. Camille T. Dungy, ed. [University of Georgia Press], Athens Georgia, 2009.
- From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great. Camille T. Dungy, Matt O'Donnell, & Jeffrey Thomson eds., Gerald Stern (Foreword), [Persea Books], NY, New York, 2009.
- The McSweeney’s Book of: Poets Picking Poets, Dominic Luxford, ed. [McSweeney's Books]: San Francisco, 2007.
- An Anthology of Creative Writer Garden of Forking Paths. Beth Anstanding and Eric Killough, eds. [Prentice Hall], 2006.
- Commonwealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania. Marjorie Maddox, Jerry Wemple eds. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005.
- New Bones: Contemporary Black Writers in America. Kevin Quashie, Keith Miller, Joyce Lausch, eds. [Prentice Hall], 2000.
