Laura Mullen (born 1958, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) is an American poet who has published 9 books of poetry and one translation.

Early life and education

Mullen was born in Los Angeles in 1958. She received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in English from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

in poetry from the

University of Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2. ...

Career

Mullen began her career teaching at

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine, United States. Founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, it was renamed Waterville College in 1821. The donations of Christian philanthropist Gardner ...

, the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

, and

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

, where her courses included seminars on

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

, and cross-genre writing. She was invited to teach as a visitor at

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

University (2001, 2017),

Naropa Nāropā (Prakrit; , Naḍapāda or Abhayakirti) was an Indian Buddhism, Buddhist Mahasiddha. He was the disciple of Tilopa and brother, or some sources say partner and pupil, of Niguma. As an Indian Mahasiddha, Naropa's instructions inform ...

University's Summer Writing Program, and Columbia College. She left

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

, where she was the McElveen Professor in English, to hold the Kenan Chair of Humanities at Wake Forest University from 2021-2023. She resigned from Wake Forest University in October 2023 in the midst of backlash against a post on her personal X account that same month, regarding the

Gaza–Israel conflict The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948, when about 200,000 of the more than 700,000 Nakba, Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes settled in the Gaza Strip as ref ...

. Mullen was awarded a

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 feder ...

Fellowship in 1988 and has since received numerous other fellowships in the United States and abroad. Her poetry collections of poetry include ''The Surface'' (1991), ''After I Was Dead'' (1999), ''Murmur'' (2007), ''Dark Archive'' (2011), ''Enduring Freedom'' (2012), ''Complicated Grief'' (2012), and ''EtC'' (2023). ''The Surface'' was a

National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program. Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and c ...

selection. Her poems have also been included in anthologies, including ''American Hybrid'' (2009), ''The Arcadia Project: North American Postmodern Pastoral'' (2012), and ''I'll Drown my Book: Conceptual Writing by Women'' (2012), among others. Her work has also been published in ''

Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

,'' ''

Denver Quarterly The ''Denver Quarterly'' (known as ''The University of Denver Quarterly'' until 1970) is a literary magazine based at the University of Denver. It was founded in 1966 by novelist John Edward Williams. Publisher The magazine is published by the ...

, Ping Pong, Lingo'', ''

Fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or net (textile), netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its ...

,'', ''Xantippe, Aufgabe,

New American Writing ''New American Writing'' is an annual American literary magazine emphasizing contemporary American poetry, including a range of innovative contemporary writing. ''New American Writing'' is published by OINK! Press, a nonprofit organization. T ...

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Bost ...

,'' ''Mipoesias'', ''How2,'' ''Talisman, Cranky'', ''

Poets.org The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outrea ...

'', ''BookForum'', and ''

The Iowa Review ''The Iowa Review'' is an American literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews. History and profile Founded in 1970, ''Iowa Review'' is issued three times a year, during the months of April, August, and December. Origi ...

''. She also published a hypertext piece on AltX. Composers and others artists have also released renditions of her poetry. In 2011, American composer

Jason Eckardt Jason Eckardt (born 17 May 1971 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American composer. He began his musical life playing guitar in heavy metal and jazz bands and abruptly moved to composing after discovering the music of Anton Webern. Compositions ...

released a setting of her poem "The Distance (This)" as "Undersong" with Mode Records. Composer Nathan Davis released "a Sound uttered, a Silence crossed" in 2015. Black Square Editions published her translation of Véronique Pittolo’s ''HERO'' (2019) and an artist’s book with photographs by John David O’Brien, Verge, was published in a limited edition in 2018.

Reception

''Dark Archive'', published in 2011, was praised for its exploration of memory and

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

material and practices. The

Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Diana Taylor (born 1950) is an American academic. She is a professor of performance studies and Spanish at New York University' s Tisch School of the Arts and the founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. She is ...

called the book impressive for the way "it daringly draws on very different types of knowledge and the way it creates new ones in new combinations". ''EtC'', published in 2023, examines the poetry industry itself (referred to as ''the Dairy Industry''), and was called "a project book stripped of recognizable content by the very process of that projection".

Publications

Books

*''The Surface'' (University of Iowa Press, 1991) *''After I Was Dead'' (University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA, 1999) *''The Tales of Horror'', (Kelsey Stn Press, CA, 1999) *''Subject'' (University of California Press, New California Poetry Series, 2005) **A song cycle by composer

based on the final poem in ''Subject'' was released on Mode records in 2011 * ''Murmur'' (

Futurepoem Books Futurepoem Books is an American not-for-profit press based in New York City. Futurepoem was founded by Dan Machlin in 2002 and focuses on publishing innovative poetry, prose and hybrid literature. The press has a rotating editorial board. Three ...

, New York City, 2007) * ''Dark Archive'' (University of California Press, New California Poetry Series, 2011) *''Enduring Freedom: A Little Book of Mechanical Brides'' (Otis Books / Seismicity Editions, 2012) *''Complicated Grief'' (Solid Objects, 2015) *''EtC'' (Solid Objects, 2023)

Anthologized works

*Poems for ''American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry'', edited by

Cole Swensen Cole Swensen (born 1955, in Kentfield, California) is an American poet, translator, editor, copywriter, and professor. Swensen was awarded a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and is the author of more than ten poetry collections and as many translations ...

and David St John, W.W. Norton & Company, 2008) *Prose: "Torch Song" in ''Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action'' (Coffee House Press, 2004). *Poems in ''The Book of Irish American Poetry'' (University of Notre Dame Press) *Prose in ''Paraspheres'' (Omnidawn Press). *Artist's statement and seven poems in ''The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries'' (University of IA Press, 2004) *Poems: "House,” “For the Reader (Blank Book),” “Self-Portrait as Somebody Else,” and “After I Was Dead” in ''The Extraordinary Tide'' (2001) *“Museum Garden Cafe” collected in ''Night Out'' (1997) *Prose: “His Father” in ''Chick-Lit: Post-

Feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Fiction'' (1995) *“They,” in ''The Best American Poetry 1990'' edited by

David Lehman David Lehman (born June 11, 1948) is an American poet, non-fiction writer, and literary critic, and the founder and series editor for '' The Best American Poetry''. He was a writer and freelance journalist for fifteen years, writing for such pub ...

and

Jorie Graham Jorie Graham (; born May 9, 1950) is an American poet. The Poetry Foundation called Graham "one of the most celebrated poets of the American post-war generation." She replaced poet Seamus Heaney as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at H ...

(Scribner’s, 1990).

References

External links

Official websiteCease and Desist interview
o
The Poetry FoundationFeature on Jacket2
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mullen, Laura 1958 births Living people American women poets Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award winners 21st-century American women academics 21st-century American academics 21st-century American poets University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Iowa alumni