Lia Purpura (born February 22, 1964) is an American poet and essayist. She is the author of four collections of poems (The Brighter the Veil, Stone Sky Lifting, King Baby, It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful), four collections of essays (Increase, On Looking, Rough Likeness, All the Fierce Tethers), and one collection of translations (Poems of Grzegorz Musial: Berliner Tagebuch and Taste of Ash). Her awards include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The NEA, The Fulbright Foundation, and others. On Looking was a Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poems and essays appear in: Agni, The New Yorker, Poetry, Orion, The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Georgia Review. Emergence, and elsewhere.
Early life and education Lia Purpura grew up on Long Island, NY and received a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA, (as a Teaching-Writing Fellow) from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Career Lia Purpura served as Writer in Residence at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Loyola University, Maryland, and taught at the low-residency MFA program The Rainier Writing Workshop. She had also taught at The Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, The Bennington Writing Program, The University of Iowa’s Nonfiction MFA program, The Minnesota Northwoods Conference, and served as Visting Writer at the Eastman School of Music, The Chautauqua Institution, and elsewhere.
Awards Lia Purpura was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (for On Looking) and was awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, a Fulbright Fellowship (translation, Warsaw Poland), Maryland State Arts Council Awards, and multiple fellowship residencies at The MacDowell Colony, as well as residencies at the Millay Colony, Blue Mountain Center, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Other awards include:
All the Fierce Tethers (Sarabande Books 2019): Independent Publishers Book Award (Gold); Nautilus Book Award in Lyric Prose (Gold) King Baby (poems, Alice James Books, 2008) won the Beatrice Hawley Award Alice James Books Website > Beatrice Hawley Award Winners] and was a finalist for the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award and the Maine Literary Award. On Looking (essays, Sarabande Books, 2006) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Towson University Prize in Literature.Sarabande Books Increase (essays, University of Georgia Press, 2000) won the Associated Writing Programs Award in Creative Nonfiction. Stone Sky Lifting (poems, Ohio State University Press, 2000) won the OSU Press/The Journal Award.
The Brighter the Veil (poems, Orchises Press, 1996) won the Towson University Prize in Literature.
Discography
Collaborations
The Poulenc Trio: Creation, featuring Lia Purpura, poet, (Delos/Naxos, 2016)
Bibliography
Essays
Poetry
Collections Gather (Poems) Alice James Books, 2028 It Shouldn't Have Been Beautiful (Poems) Penguin Press, 2015, King Baby (Poems) Alice James Books, 2008, Stone Sky Lifting (Poems) Ohio State University Press, 2000, The Brighter the Veil (Poems) Orchises Press, 1996,
Translations (Translation) Artist’s Book, Letterpress, Artwork
Threadings. Artist’s Portfolio and Journal, and Essays (Agni, #102) First Adventures in Beauty (SeeDouble Press) Scream, or, Neverminding (Literary House Press, Washington College, MD)
List of poems TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedPrayer2012Beginning2013
Podcasts and Interviews Contemplify: Tending to the Spiritual Interior of Language The Slowdown (introduced by Tracy K. Smith) The New Yorker Podcasts: Lia Purpura Reads Carl Phillips and her own work Poetry Society of America Essay Daily
References
Sources Alice James Books > Author Page > Lia Purpura
External links NEA Writer's Corner: Lia Purpura
Interview with Lia Purpura by Margaret MacInnis Interviews > Smartish Pace > An Interview with Lia Purpura > by Laura Klebanow Guggenheim Fellowship Bookslut: Interview by Noah Charney When Beauty Stretches: Apercu Quarterly The Journal: Ohio State University Interview
WYPR Maryland Morning : Rough Likeness Sarabande Books: "Author Speaks"