Juliana Spahr (born 1966) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

, and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

. She is the recipient of the 2009 Hardison Poetry Prize awarded by the

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare material ...

to honor a U.S. poet whose art and teaching demonstrate great imagination and daring. Both Spahr's critical and scholarly studies, i.e., ''Everybody’s Autonomy: Connective Reading and Collective Identity'' (2001), and her poetry have shown Spahr's commitment to fostering a "value of reading" as a communal, democratic, open process. Her work therefore "distinguishes itself because she writes poems for which her critical work calls." In addition to teaching and writing poetry, Spahr is also an active editor.O.B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize: Juliana Spahr
note that the 2009 judges were

Claudia Rankine Claudia Rankine (; born September 4, 1963) is an American poet, essayist, playwright and the editor of several anthologies. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays. Her book of poetry, '' Citizen: An American L ...

and Joshua Weiner. Spahr received the National Poetry Series Award for her first collection of poetry, ''Response'' (1996).

Life

Born and raised in Chillicothe,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, Spahr received her BA from

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

and her PhD from the

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

in English. She has taught at

Siena College Siena College is an American private Franciscan college in Loudonville, New York. Siena was founded by the Order of Friars Minor in 1937. The college was named after Bernardino of Siena, a 15th-century Italian Franciscan friar and preacher. St ...

(1996–7), the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

(1997–2003), and

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

(2003–). With

Jena Osman Jena Osman is an American poet and editor, who graduated from Brown University, and the State University of New York at Buffalo, with a Ph.D. She teaches at Temple University. Osman's work has appeared in ''American Letters & Commentary'', ''C ...

, she edited the arts journal ''Chain'' from 1993 to 2003. In 2012, Spahr co-edited ''A Megaphone: Some Enactments, Some Numbers, and Some Essays about the Continued Usefulness of Crotchless-pants-and-a-machine-gun Feminism'' with Mills colleague and fellow-poet

Stephanie Young Stephanie Young-Brehm is an American voice actress and singer primarily known for her voice-over work in English-language dubs for Japanese anime. Her best-known roles include Nico Robin in the Funimation dub of ''One Piece'', Arachne in '' S ...

Activism

Spahr's participation in the 2011 Occupy Movement is chronicled in her 2015 book '' That Winter The Wolf Came''. According to Spahr, she spent time in the encampments and participated in protests, although she and her son "never spent the night." Her work examines social issues, including the repercussions of the

BP oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered ...

, the global impact of

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

, and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. She uses poetry as a mechanism to provide cultural recognition and representation to social movements and political actions. Following the

Occupy Movement The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...

, the police shootings of

Oscar Grant Oscar Grant III was a 22-year-old African-American man who was killed in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009 by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid ...

Eric Garner On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the inciden ...

, and Mike Brown, and the

2009 California college tuition hike protests The 2009 California university college tuition hike protests were a series of protests held on college campuses in the University of California, University of California system and elsewhere in California in September 2009 through March 2010. T ...

, Spahr founded the publishing project

Commune Editions A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

, along with Jasper Bernes and

Joshua Clover Joshua Clover (born December 30, 1962 in Berkeley, California) is a writer and a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California Davis. He is a published scholar, poet, critic, and journalist whose work has been t ...

. The project was founded with the intention to publish poetry as a companion to political action.

Bibliography

Poetry

*''Nuclear'' (Leave Books, 1994) �
full text
*''Response'' (Sun & Moon Press, 1996) �

*''Spiderwasp or Literary Criticism'' (Explosive Books, 1998) *'' Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2001) *''Things of Each Possible Relation Hashing Against One Another'' (Newfield, NY: Palm Press, 2003) *''This Connection of Everyone With Lungs'' (University of California Press, 2005) *''Well Then There Now'' (Black Sparrow Press, 2011) *''That Winter The Wolf Came'' (Commune Editions, 2015)

Fiction

*''An Army of Lovers'' with David Buuck, *''The Transformation'' (

Berkeley, CA Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryv ...

: Atelos Press, 2007)

Criticism

*''Everybody's Autonomy: Connective Reading and Collective Identity'' (University of Alabama Press, 2001) * ''Du Bois's Telegram: Literary Resistance and State Containment'' (Harvard University Press, 2018)

Editor

*''Writing from the New Coast: Technique'' (essay collection) Co-editor with

Peter Gizzi Peter Gizzi (born 1959 in Alma, Michigan) is an American poet, essayist, editor and teacher. He attended New York University, Brown University and the State University of New York at Buffalo. Life Gizzi was born in Alma, Michigan to an Italia ...

. (Stockbridge: O-blek Editions, 1993) *''A Poetics of Criticism'' (essay collection) Co-editor with

Mark Wallace Mark David Wallace (born December 31, 1967) is an American businessman, former diplomat and lawyer who has served in a variety of government, political and private sector posts. He served in several positions during the Presidency of George W. ...

Kristin Prevallet Kristin Prevallet (b. 1966) is an American poet, essayist, and teacher. Her poetic work incorporates conceptual writing and trance, and her performances are rooted in feminist performance art and spoken word. ''Everywhere Here and in Brooklyn'', ...

, and Pam Rehm. (Buffalo: Leave Books, 1993) *''Chain'' [co-edited with

], since 199
full text
*''American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Lyric Meets Language'' [co-edited with

], (Wesleyan University Press, 2002) *''Poetry and Pedagogy: the Challenge of the Contemporary'' [co-edited with Joan Retallack ], (Palgrave, 2006) *''A Megaphone: Some Enactments, Some Numbers, and Some Essays about the Continued Usefulness of Crotchless-pants-and-a-machine-gun Feminism'' o-edited with Stephanie Young (ChainLinks, 2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spahr, Juliana Living people Bard College alumni 1966 births People from Chillicothe, Ohio University at Buffalo alumni American women poets Poets from Ohio 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Siena College faculty University of Hawaiʻi faculty Mills College faculty American women academics