Robinson, Elizabeth 1961-

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Robinson, Elizabeth 1961-

PERSONAL:

Born 1961. Education: Bard College, B.A., 1984; Brown University, M.A., 1987; Pacific School of Religion, M.Div., 1995, M.A., 1999.

ADDRESSES:

Home—CO. E-mail—elzarob@comcast.net.

CAREER:

Has taught at University of Colorado, Boulder.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative Poetry, 1993-1994, 1994-1995, 2004-2005; National Poetry Series Award, for Pure Descent, 2001; Fence Modern Poets Prize, 2002, for Apprehend.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

In the Sequence of Falling Things, Paradigm Press (Sausalito, CA), 1990.

Bed of Lists, Kelsey St. Press (Berkeley, CA), 1990.

House Made of Silver, Kelsey St. Press (Berkeley, CA), 2000.

Harrow, Omnidawn (Richmond, CA), 2001.

Apprehend, Fence Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Pure Descent, Sun & Moon Press 2003.

Apostrophe, Apogee Press (Berkeley, CA), 2006.

Under That Silky Roof, Burning Deck (Providence RI), 2006.

POETRY CHAPBOOKS

My Name Happens Also, Burning Deck Press, 1987.

Nearings, Leave Press, 1991.

String, French Bread Press, 1992.

Iemanje, Meow Press, 1993.

Eight Etudes, Paradigm Press, 1998.

Other Veins, Absent Roots, Instress, 1998.

As Betokening, Quarry Press, 1998.

Lodger, Arcturus Editions, 1999.

Refractory Responses, Seeing Eye Books, 2003.

The End of the World, Left Hand Books, 2005.

Exequey, Furniture Press, 2006.

The Golem, Phylum Press, 2006.

Murderous Secrets, Wintered Series, 2006.

Carrington, Hot Whiskey Press, 2006.

Contributor to anthologies, including 49+1, Nouveaux Poetes Americains, Editions Royaumont, 1991; Writing from the New Coast, Oblek Editions, 1993; The Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative American Poetry, Sun & Moon Press, 1993-94; Primary Trouble, Talisman House, 1995; American Poetry: The Next Generation, Carnegie Mellon Press, 2000; The Best American Poetry of 2002, Scribner Poetry, 2003; The Grand Permission: Essays on Motherhood and Poetics, Wesleyan University Press, 2003; Enough: Poems in Protest of the War, O Books, 2003; and Isn't It Romantic, Verse Press, 2005. Contributor to periodicals, including Alice Blue, Antennae, Bird Dog, Boomerang, Chase Park, Colorado Review, Conjunctions, Copper Nickel, Denver Quarterly, Dislocate, Epoch, Fracture, Fence, Germ, In Tense, Ixnay, Kenning, New American Writing, New Review, Nocturnes, Parthenon West, Poetry Salzburg Review, Pool, Small Town, Sulfur, Third Bed, Transmission, Untitled, Ur Vox, Volt, and Women's Studies Quarterly. Coeditor, 26 (magazine) and of "EtherDome" (chapbook series).

SIDELIGHTS:

Elizabeth Robinson developed her love of poetry at a young age. Her family attended church regularly, and she recalls memorizing Bible verses as a child. In an interview for the Here Comes Everybody blog, Robinson remarked: "I remember especially liking Job, and the beginning of the gospel of John, with all its braiding of phrases." She also enjoyed poems such as Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat" and Robert Louis Stevenson's "At the Seaside," as well as the works of Emily Dickinson. Her interest was solidified in college, where she encountered a broader range of poets. However, she went on to study philosophy and ethics, and eventually religion, all of which provides fodder for her own poetry. As she told Here Comes Everybody: "I think that philosophical thinking can be similar to poetic thinking, in terms of recreating logic and offering intellectual and creative permissions."

Robinson has written numerous volumes of poems, and has won an assortment of accolades and prizes. In addition, she serves as a coeditor of the literary magazine 26 and the "EtherDome" series of chapbooks, the latter of which strives to promote the work of emerging women poets. But it is her own work for which she is best known and critically acclaimed. Patrick Pritchett, in a review of Apprehend for the Jacket Web site, wrote that Robinson "over the last few years has quietly, but unmistakably, emerged as the one of the finest poets of her generation." Of the collection, which focuses primarily on spiritual desire and the crises to which it sometimes leads, the critic remarked: "Robinson's wisdom is to acknowledge that what we ask of the poem, as of the fairy tale, is that it affirms for us that yes, the world is broken, but that nevertheless, we are somehow safe inside of it."