Mississippi鈥檚 Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce adds to accolades with new state poetry award
Contact: Sam Kealhofer
STARKVILLE鈥擬ississippi鈥檚 Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce is adding another accolade to her distinguished list of honors.
The Mississippi State professor of English is the winner of the 2021 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award for her book 鈥淒anger Days,鈥 a collection of poems addressing the beauty of the world, as well as destruction created by climate change.
A co-director of the university鈥檚 creative writing program, Pierce said it is 鈥渁n honor鈥 to have her book recognized by MIAL.
The organization gives annual awards to creative individuals contributing to the fields of art, music and literature, and will hold a joint celebration of 2020 and 2021 award winners June 12 in Pass Christian. For more, visit .
鈥淚鈥檓 thrilled and grateful. It鈥檚 especially heartening to know that these poems, written in the quiet of my office or late at night when my family was asleep, can resonate for and connect with readers,鈥 Pierce said.
Published late last year by Saturnalia Books, Pierce鈥檚 鈥淒anger Days鈥 calls on readers to 鈥渟ee the world as it is in the 21st century,鈥 Pierce said. While writing the book, she said she contemplated her role as both a mother and writer, melting glaciers around the world, and the rise of gun violence in America.
Pierce also has received a 2020 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Artist Fellowship for her poetry, a 2020 Pushcart Prize for her poem 鈥淓ntreaty,鈥 and a 2018 Pushcart Prize for her poem 鈥淚 Kept Getting Books about Birds.鈥
A native of Delaware, Pierce received a 2019 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Pierce鈥檚 2019 poem 鈥淗ow Becoming a Mother Is Like Space Travel鈥 was published in The Nation magazine, considered the oldest continuously printed weekly magazine in the U.S.
Pierce has authored three additional books of poetry. They include 鈥淭he Tornado Is the World鈥澛(Saturnalia 2016), winner of the 2017 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award and a 2015 national Sustainable Arts Foundation Award; 鈥淭he Girls of Peculiar鈥澛(Saturnalia 2012), winner of the 2013 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award; and聽鈥淔amous Last Words鈥澛(Saturnalia 2008), winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize.
Her chapbook 鈥淎nimals of Habit鈥 was published in 2004 by Kent State University Press. Her poems also have appeared in The Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, Slate, Boston Review and The Cincinnati Review, among many other publications.
Pierce earned a Bachelor of Arts from Pennsylvania鈥檚 Susquehanna University, Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State University, and doctorate from the University of Missouri.
For more about her work, visit聽.
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