Lucia Maria Perillo (September 30, 1958 – October 16, 2016) was an American
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 wri ...
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', October 25, 2016. Accessed October 26, 2016. "Lucia Maria Perillo was born on Sept. 30, 1958, in Manhattan and grew up in suburban Irvington, N.Y."
Her work appeared in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' and ''
The Kenyon Review
''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, US, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ' ...
'', among other magazines. A traditional poet of mostly free-verse personal reflection, she wrote extensively about living with multiple sclerosis in her poems and essays. ''Time Will Clean the Carcass Bones'' was her last book of poetry ( Copper Canyon Press, 2016). Her 2012 collection of short fiction, ''Happiness is a Chemical in the Brain,'' was shortlisted for the 2013 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. She died on October 16, 2016 in
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.
Europea ...
, aged 58.
Awards
*1989 Samuel French Morse Award, Northeastern University Press
*1990 Norma Farber First Book Award, Poetry Society of America for ''Dangerous Life''
*1991 PEN/Revson Award, Pen American Center, NY
*Purdue University's Emery Poetry Prize
*1993 Illinois Arts Council Award for Creative Non-Fiction
*1994 Finalist, National Poetry Series
*1995 Verna Emery Poetry Prize, Purdue University Press
*1995 Iowa Poetry Prize
*1997 Kate Tufts Discovery Award
*1997 Balcones Prize, Austin Community College for ''The Body Mutinies''
*1998 Chad Walsh Poetry Prize, The
Beloit Poetry Journal
The ''Beloit Poetry Journal'' is an American poetry magazine established in 1950 at Beloit College.MacArthur Fellows Program award
*2003 Pushcart Prize for "Shrike Tree"
*2005 Pushcart Prize for "In the Confessional Mode"
*2006 Finalist,
Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ...
*2010 Washington State Book Award for ''Inseminating the Elephant''
*2010 Bobbit Prize, Library of Congress for ''Inseminating the Elephant''
*2010 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry finalist for ''Inseminating the Elephant''
*2012 WA State Governor's Arts Medal
*2012
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
__NOTOC__
The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award—named in honour of Frank O'Connor, who devoted much of his work to the form—was an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. It was presented betwe ...
finalist for ''Happiness is a Chemical in the Brain''
*2013 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize finalist for ''Happiness is a Chemical in the Brain''
*2013
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Shelley Memorial Award The Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of Mary P. Sears, and named after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need, and is ...
*2013
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, also known as the Pacific Northwest Book Award (PNBA), is an annual award presented by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association to recognize "excellence in writing" from the American Pacif ...
for ''On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths''"2013 Pacific Northwest Book Awards Announced" NW Book Loves, January 7, 2013. Accessed October 27, 2016. "The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, the indie bookstore booster behind this blog, announced the winners of their annual book awards today. Congratulations are in order for... Lucia Perillo (Olympia, WA) for ''On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths''"
Bibliography
Poetry
;Collections
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* ''Time Will Clean the Carcass Bones.'' Copper Canyon Press. 2016.
;List of poems