Anna Journey (born November 1980 in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...

) is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and essayist who was awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.National Endowment of the Arts 2011 Poetry Fellows
She is the author of the essay collection ''An Arrangement of Skin'' (

Counterpoint Press Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard and the independent ...

, 2017) and three books of poems: ''The Atheist Wore Goat Silk'' (

Louisiana State University Press The Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press) is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of American Univer ...

, 2017), ''Vulgar Remedies'' (

, 2013), and ''If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting'' (

University of Georgia Press The University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is the university press of the University of Georgia, a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. It is the oldest and la ...

, 2009), the latter of which was selected by Thomas Lux for the

National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program. Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and cho ...

. She teaches creative writing and literature at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, where she is an assistant professor of English.

Life

She graduated from

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virgini ...

with an MFA in creative writing. She taught at Virginia Commonwealth University and served as an associate editor for '' Blackbird''. She earned her Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

, where she served as a poetry editor for ''

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississ ...

''. Journey is the author of the poetry collection ''If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting'' (Georgia, 2009), which was 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 (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...

("'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''.An Introduction to Sylvia Plath's "Ennui"
Blackbird.vcu.edu; accessed July 5, 2020. She is married to poet

David St. John David St. John (born July 24, 1949) is an American poet. 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. ...

and lives in

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed b ...

Awards

* 2005 Sycamore Review Wabash Prize for Poetry * Yaddo residency * 2005 Wabash Prize for Poetry * Academy of American Poets' Prize * 2007 Diner Poetry Contest * 2008

* 2011

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Fellowship for Poetry

Bibliography

Poetry

;Collections * * * ''The atheist wore goat silk'' (Louisiana State University Press, 2017) * ''The Judas ear'', 2022 ;List of poems

Non-fiction

"Review: The World in Repair: Steve Gehrke's ''The Pyramids of Malpighi''", ''Blackbird'', Spring 2005"Dragon Goes to Bed with Princess: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Influence on Sylvia Plath", ''Notes on Contemporary Literature'', 09/01/07
* ''An Arrangement of Skin'' (Counterpoint Press, 2017)

Critical studies and reviews of Journey's work

;''If birds gather your hair for nesting *

References

External links

Official website

"How Do You Bottle the Lightning?: Anna Journey sits down with David Wojahn", ''Gulf Coast''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Journey, Anna 1980 births Living people 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers American women academics American women poets People from Arlington County, Virginia The New Yorker people Virginia Commonwealth University alumni Virginia Commonwealth University faculty