Anna Journey
Encyclopedia
Anna Journey is an American poet
who was recently awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.
, with an MFA in creative writing.
She taught at Virginia Commonwealth University
, and served as an associate editor for Blackbird.
She received her Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston
, where she served as a poetry editor for Gulf Coast
.
Journey is the author of the poetry collection, If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting (Georgia, 2009), selected by Thomas Lux for the National Poetry Series. Film director David Lynch called her book, via Twitter, "magical." Her poetry appears in American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, FIELD, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, 'Shenandoah, Gulf Coast,' and Blackbird.
Her critical essay on Sylvia Plath
("'Dragon Goes to Bed With Princess': F. Scott Fitzgerald's Influence on Sylvia Plath") appears in Notes on Contemporary Literature. Her essay, "Lost Vocabularies: On Contemporary Elegy" appears in Parnassus: Poetry In Review." In 2006, Journey discovered the unpublished status of Plath's early sonnet "Ennui" that was published in Blackbird.
She is married to the poet David St. John
and lives in Venice, California.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
who was recently awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.
Life
She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth UniversityVirginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...
, with an MFA in creative writing.
She taught at Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...
, and served as an associate editor for Blackbird.
She received her Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
, where she served as a poetry editor for Gulf Coast
Gulf Coast (Literary Journal)
Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts is a literary magazine from Houston, Texas. Founded in 1986 by Donald Barthelme and Philip Lopate, Gulf Coast was envisioned as an intersection between the literary and visual arts communities...
.
Journey is the author of the poetry collection, If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting (Georgia, 2009), selected by Thomas Lux for the National Poetry Series. Film director David Lynch called her book, via Twitter, "magical." Her poetry appears in American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, FIELD, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, 'Shenandoah, Gulf Coast,' and Blackbird.
Her critical essay on Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
("'Dragon Goes to Bed With Princess': F. Scott Fitzgerald's Influence on Sylvia Plath") appears in Notes on Contemporary Literature. Her essay, "Lost Vocabularies: On Contemporary Elegy" appears in Parnassus: Poetry In Review." In 2006, Journey discovered the unpublished status of Plath's early sonnet "Ennui" that was published in Blackbird.
She is married to the poet David St. John
David St. John
-Biography:Born in Fresno, California, he was educated at California State University, Fresno, where he studied with poet Philip Levine, and at the University of Iowa, receiving an M.F.A. in 1974...
and lives in Venice, California.
Awards
- 2011 National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship for Poetry - 2008 National Poetry SeriesNational Poetry SeriesThe National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program.Every year since 1979 it has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry...
- 2005 Wabash Prize for Poetry
- Academy of American Poets' Prize
- 2007 Diner Poetry Contest
- 2005 Sycamore Review Wabash Prize for Poetry
- Yaddo residency
Works
- "Walking Upright in a Field of Devils", They Shoot Poets - Don't They
- "Backwater Blues", Story South, May 2007
- "THE DEVIL'S PARTY", Diagram, Volume 6.3
- "Red-Haired Girl Wants You to Know"; "Dissecting the Automaton"; "Nude Girls to Pluto", 42 Opus
Criticism
- "Dragon Goes to Bed with Princess: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Influence on Sylvia Plath", Notes on Contemporary Literature, 09/01/07
- "Review: The World in Repair: Steve Gehrke's The Pyramids of Malpighi", Blackbird, Spring 2005
Reviews
Anna Journey's first book of poems, If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting (University of Georgia Press: 104 pp., $16.95 paper), is a deeply American debut that deals with the author's Southern childhood and adolescence as a pretty, redheaded girl from the bayou. It's lush with Romanticism: Journey writes with near-perfect pitch about flowers, the suburban eeriness of garden centers, her closeted gay psychiatrist grandfather and the mother who broke her back.