Bernadette Mayer

In 2009 Bernadette Mayer won a Creative Capital grant to work on her book The Helens of Troy, NY, published by New Directions Press. Last year she received the 2014 Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. Her latest books include Eating The Colors of A Lineup of Words: The Early Books of Bernadette Mayer, Station Hill Press and Sonnets: Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition, Tender Buttons Press which was nominated for the Firecracker Awards by The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses.

Mayer plans to use the Guggenheim funds to work on book length series of poems inspired from studying and working with all the field guide books she can accumulate.

Bernadette Mayer has published more than 20 collections of poetry. She began her career as a conceptual artist, experimenting with time-based works that combined photography and writing, and editing and publishing the magazine 0 TO 9 with artist Vito Acconci. She has created 16 books of poetry including the book-length work Midwinter Day (a book written in one day). She has taught in a variety of writing programs, including those at the Naropa University, The New School of Social Research and Miami University.

Follow these links for more information:

The Poetry Foundation

Tender Buttons Press

Profile photograph by Philip Good.