Brian Turner (American poet) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Brian Turner is an American poet, essayist, and professor. He won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award

Beatrice Hawley Award

The Beatrice Hawley Award is given annually by Alice James Books. The award includes publication of a book-length poetry manuscript and a cash prize ....

for his debut collection, Here, Bullet, (Alice James Books

Alice James Books

Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington.- History and mission :...

) the first of many awards and honors received for this collection of poems about his experience as a soldier in the Iraq War. His honors since include a Lannan Literary Fellowship and NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry, and the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship. His second collection, shortlisted for the 2010 T.S. Eliot Prize is Phantom Noise (Alice James Books, 2010).

Personal life

Turner was born in Visalia, California

Visalia, California

Visalia is a Central California city situated in the heart of California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, approximately southeast of San Francisco and north of Los Angeles...

and raised in Fresno

Fresno

Fresno is the fifth largest city in California.Fresno may also refer to:-Places:Colombia* Fresno, TolimaSpain* Fresno, a ghost village in Nidáliga, Valle de Sedano, Burgos* Aldea del Fresno, Madrid* Fresno de la Vega, Ribera del Esla, León...

and then Madera County through high school and attended Fresno City College

Fresno City College

Fresno City College is a community college in Fresno, California. Established in 1910, it was the first community college in California and the second in the nation...

before transferring to Fresno State for his BA and MA. He received his MFA from the University of Oregon

University of Oregon

-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

. He taught English in South Korea for a year, and traveled to Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan. Turner is a United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

veteran, and was an infantry team leader for a year in the Iraq War beginning November 2003, with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. In 1999 and 2000 he was with the 10th Mountain Division, deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

Career

Turner has seen his poems published in The Cortland Review,' Poetry Daily, Atlanta Review, Crab Orchard Review, Georgia Review, Rattle, Virginia Quarterly Review, and ZYZZYVA, and in anthologies including Voices in Wartime: The Anthology (Whit Press, 2005) and Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families (Random House, 2006). His published essays include one for National Geographic and a series of essays for The New York Times blog, Home Fires.

Turner received major media attention for Here, Bullet, interviewed or featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, on Morning Edition and other NPR programs, The Verb (BBC), and many other venues. He was featured in the film, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Richard E. Robbins, which portrays the lives and experiences of American combat soldiers who have been to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.-Production:...

, nominated for a 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Bloodaxe Books

Bloodaxe Books

Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...

published the U.K. edition of Here, Bullet in 2007 His works have been been included in such anthologies as The Best American Poetry 2007 and A mind apart: poems of melancholy, madness, and addiction. He is Director of the low-residency MFA program at Sierra Nevada College

Sierra Nevada College

Sierra Nevada College was founded in 1969 as a private, liberal arts university. It is located in Incline Village, Nevada, and is known for its programs in Entrepreneurship, Environmental Science, Computer Science, Entertainment Technology, English, Ski Business & Resort Management, and Teacher...

at Lake Tahoe.

Books

Phantom Noise, Alice James Books
Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington.- History and mission :...

, 2010, ISBN 9781882295807
Here, Bullet, Alice James Books
Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington.- History and mission :...

, 2005
2005 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* October 7 — Celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the first reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl were staged in San Francisco, New York City, and in Leeds in the UK...

, ISBN 9781882295555

Honors and awards

2009: 2009 Fellow Award from United States Artists
United States Artists
United States Artists is an independent nonprofit and nongovernmental philanthropic organization based in Los Angeles, California and dedicated to supporting the work of living American artists by the granting of cash awards, called USA Fellowships...
2009
2009 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* January 5 – The Turkish government announces it will posthumously restore the citizenship it had stripped from influential poet Nazim Hikmet, a Marxist who died in 1963 as an exile in the Soviet...

: Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
The Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship is given annually to a U.S.-born poet to spend one year outside North America in a country the recipient feels will most advance his or her work....
2008
2008 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* June — the release in the United Kingdom of a new film, The Edge of Love, Dylan Thomas' relationship with two women, starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys *...

: 2008 Charity Randall Citation
2007
2007 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* March 5: a car bomb was exploded on Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. This locale is the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, a winding...

: NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry
2007
2007 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* March 5: a car bomb was exploded on Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. This locale is the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, a winding...

: Poets' Prize
Poets' Prize
The Poets' Prize is awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year. The $3000 annual prize is donated by a committee of about 20 American poets, who each nominate two books and who also serve as judges...

for Here Bullet
2006
2006 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* French public notary Patrick Huet unveils Pieces of Hope to the Echo of the World in Lyon...

: Maine Literary Award in Poetry
2006
2006 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* French public notary Patrick Huet unveils Pieces of Hope to the Echo of the World in Lyon...

: Northern California Book Award in Poetry
2006
2006 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* French public notary Patrick Huet unveils Pieces of Hope to the Echo of the World in Lyon...

: PEN Center USA "Best in the West" Literary Award in Poetry
2006
2006 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* French public notary Patrick Huet unveils Pieces of Hope to the Echo of the World in Lyon...

: Sheila Margaret Motten Award from the New England Poetry Club
2006
2006 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* French public notary Patrick Huet unveils Pieces of Hope to the Echo of the World in Lyon...

: Lannan Literary Fellowship
2005
2005 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* October 7 — Celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the first reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl were staged in San Francisco, New York City, and in Leeds in the UK...

: Beatrice Hawley Award
Beatrice Hawley Award
The Beatrice Hawley Award is given annually by Alice James Books. The award includes publication of a book-length poetry manuscript and a cash prize ....

External links

Reviews