: ''For the playwright born 1983, see''
Joshua Harmon (playwright)
Joshua Harmon (born 1983) is a New York City-based playwright, whose works include ''Bad Jews'' and ''Significant Other (play), Significant Other'', both produced Off-Broadway by Roundabout Theatre Company.
Harmon is the recipient of 2 Drama D ...
.
Joshua Harmon (born 1971) is an American poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He has authored six books, including ''The Soft Path'' (poems, 2019), ''The Annotated Mixtape'' (nonfiction, 2014), ''History of Cold Seasons'' (short stories, 2014), ''Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie'' (poems, 2011), ''Scape'' (poems, 2009), and ''Quinnehtukqut'' (novel, 2007).
Life and work
Harmon was born and raised in
. He was educated at
Marlboro College and at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, where he earned an
MFA in fiction.
''Quinnehtukqut'', excerpts of which were awarded a 2004
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 in prose, was short-listed for the 2008 VCU Cabell
First Novelist Award The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award is an American literary award for debut novels. It has been presented annually since 2002 on behalf of Virginia Commonwealth University's MFA in Creative Writing Program.
Nominations are solicited from MFA prog ...
. Of this novel,
Open Letters Monthly
''Open Letters Monthly'' or ''Open Letters Monthly: an Arts and Literature Review'', was an online arts and culture magazine. It was founded in 2007 by Sam Sacks, John Cotter, and Steve Donoghue, and published its last issue in 2017. It features lo ...
wrote that "''Quinnehtukqut'' is the most impressive debut I can remember," while
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
wrote that "Harmon...concerns himself with formal innovation at the expense of a coherent narrative."
''Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie'' was awarded the 2010
Akron Poetry Prize
The Akron Poetry Prize is an annual contest held by The University of Akron Press. The competition is open to all poets writing in English. The winning poet receives an honorarium of $1,000 and publication of his or her book in the Akron Series in ...
by judge
G.C. Waldrep
G. C. Waldrep (born George Calvin Waldrep III; 1968) is an American poet and historian.
Biography
Waldrep was born in South Boston, Virginia. He earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees in history at Harvard University and Duke University, resp ...
and published in the
Akron Series in Poetry The Akron Series in Poetry, published by The University of Akron Press was founded "to bring to the public writers who speak in original and compelling voices." In addition to publishing three collections of poetry every year, The Akron Series in P ...
.
The Rumpus
''The Rumpus'' is an online literary magazine launched on January 20, 2009. The site features interviews, book reviews, essays, comics, and critiques of creative culture as well as original fiction and poetry. The site runs two subscription-base ...
called the book "Part love song, part ethnography, part cry for help." Reviewing ''Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie'' in
Rain Taxi
''Rain Taxi'' is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, ''Rain Taxi'' maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts read ...
, poet
Donna Stonecipher wrote that "in both free-verse and prose poem forms,
armonuses lyric’s heightened capacity for beauty to detail Poughkeepsie’s ugliness in defiantly beautiful formulations."
''The Annotated Mixtape'' was considered "an essay collection on the nature of obsession" by
The Rumpus
''The Rumpus'' is an online literary magazine launched on January 20, 2009. The site features interviews, book reviews, essays, comics, and critiques of creative culture as well as original fiction and poetry. The site runs two subscription-base ...
. ''
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
'' described ''History of Cold Seasons'' as "a dozen stories that mash up poetic, dreamlike observations with the caustic, inbred hardiness of New Englanders," and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
called the book "a remarkably assured and poetic first collection."
Harmon's second volume in the
, ''The Soft Path'' was called "intricate, intelligent, and complex," "an at times daunting though persistently rewarding collection of sound and landscape, of fragmented language and tenacious poetic cycles, of meaning-making and of diving into our political and environmental quagmires" by ''
''. Harmon described it as "a book composed on the move, in fragments … but also a book about how commuting (among many other forces) often keeps us from anything but a superficial relationship with places." ''
'', in a review of the book, noted "That some anti-capitalist sentiment would accompany close attention to sets of fraught and fraying systems should not come as any surprise, and the book’s dual epigraphs—a few lines from
’s prepared testimony to the U.S. Senate in 1976—do plenty to announce these poems’ incoming concerns with respect to economy and ecology. But there is a refreshing sense of possibility to ''The Soft Path''’s treatment of this familiar set of problems, a freeness in its rendering that reminds us of the decadent fields of perception that language can open onto, even in application to our lamest of worldly conundrums."
Harmon's writing has appeared in various periodicals, including
. His
''Outtakes, B-Sides, & Demos'' was awarded the 2019 Paul Bowles Award and published as the first title from Five Points Editions.
Harmon has taught at
, where he was also the 2013 Writer-in-Residence.