Matthea Harvey

Matthea Harvey is the author of five books of poetry, most recently If the Tabloids are True What are You?, in which she paired poems with her artwork (mer-tool silhouettes, handkerchiefs embroidered with real and imaginary patents, photographs of miniatures frozen inside ice cubes). Her previous books of poetry include Of Lamb (an erasure of a biography of Charles Lamb with images by Amy Jean Porter), Modern Life (winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a New York Times Notable Book), Sad Little Breathing Machine and Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form.

In 2012, Harvey collaborated with sound artist Justin Bennett on Telettrofono, a Staten Island audio walking tour (part of the Guggeheim Museum’s Stillspotting series). Harvey has also published two children’s books, Cecil the Pet Glacier, illustrated by Giselle Potter and The Little General and the Giant Snowflake, illustrated by Elizabeth Zechel. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently working on a book about clouds.

Poems:
The Straightforward Mermaid
Using a Hula Hoop Can Get You Abducted By Aliens
Matthea Harvey’s Telettrofono, featured in Poetry Magazine

Sister: Ellen Harvey, Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts, 2016