April Ossmann is an American poet, teacher, and editor. She is author of ''Event Boundaries'' (

Four Way Books Four Way Books is an American nonprofit literary press located in New York City, New York, which publishes poetry and short fiction by emerging and established writers. It features the work of the winners of national poetry competitions, as well ...

, 2017) and ''Anxious Music'' (

, 2007), and has had her poems published in many literary journals including '' Harvard Review,'' '' Hayden’s Ferry Review,'' ''

Puerto del Sol ''Puerto del Sol'' is a non-profit literary magazine run by faculty and graduate students from the MFA program in Creative Writing Passages North ''Passages North'' is an American literary magazine published by Northern Michigan University. Essays that have appeared in ''Passages North'' have been recognized in the anthology, ''The Best American Essays'', on numerous occasions.Michigan Jour ...

,'' ''

Mid-American Review ''Mid-American Review'' (''MAR'') is an international literary journal dedicated to publishing contemporary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and translations. Founded in 1981, ''MAR'' is a publication of the Department of English and the College of Ar ...

,'' and '' Colorado Review,'' and in anthologies including ''From the Fishouse'' (Persea Books, 2009), and ''Contemporary Poetry of New England'' (Middlebury College Press, 2002). Her awards include a 2000 ''

Prairie Schooner ''Prairie Schooner'' is a literary magazine published quarterly at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with the cooperation of UNL's English Department and the University of Nebraska Press. It is based in Lincoln, Nebraska and was first publish ...

'' Reader's Choice Award. Her essays have been published in ''

Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'', ...

,'' and by the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist R ...

Career

Ossmann worked as an assistant, and then associate, editor for the

University Press of New England The University Press of New England (UPNE), located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, was a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College (its host member), Tufts University, the University of New H ...

for over three years.

Alice James Books

Ossmann was executive director of Alice James Books from 2000 to 2008, presiding over a period of growth that, according to ''Poets & Writers,'' saw the press budget more than double in size, and saw the publication of the best-selling ''Here, Bullet,'' by Brian Turner, which garnered major media attention. According to ''Publishers Weekly,'' which interviewed Ossmann on the occasion of Alice James Books’ thirtieth anniversary, "the press received a three-year, $250,000 stabilization grant from an anonymous donor...With the grant, the press added two full-time staffers, upgraded its equipment, and launched a website with secure online ordering. The press also signed with a trade distributor for the first time,

Consortium Book Sales and Distribution Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. It was named Publisher of the Y ...

." According to ''

Valley News The ''Valley News'' (and ''Sunday Valley News'') is a seven-day morning daily newspaper based in Lebanon, New Hampshire, covering the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont, in the United States. Although the newspaper's offices are ...

'' (West Lebanon, NH) reporter Kristen Fountain, “It was an all-consuming, life-changing position, during which she stabilized the company's financial structure, increased its output and helped push its books into the national press.” Since leaving Alice James Books in 2008 to launch her own business, she has worked as a freelance editor and consultant.

Teaching

Ossmann has taught literature and creative writing for the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe, the University of Maine at Farmington, and Lebanon College, and has performed at

Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing The Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing is a graduate program in creative writing based at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine, United States. Stonecoast enrolls approximately 100 students in four major genres: creative non ...

residencies and the

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most ...

as a visiting publisher. She currently teaches poetry workshops and private tutorials.

Published works

* ''Event Boundaries'' (

, 2017) * ''Anxious Music'' (

, 2007)

Reception

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

,'' in reviewing ''Anxious Music,'' wrote that Ossmann's voice is "remarkable for its confidence and fierceness." ''Event Boundaries'' was a finalist for the 2018 Vermont Book Award, and Ossmann received a 2013 Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant for the manuscript-in-progress. In its review of the book, '' Library Journal'' wrote, “The poems are beautiful and subtly witty, complicated and deceptively honest.” Ossmann has been interviewed by radio programs in California, podcast in Vermont, and in print by the ''

,'' the Vermont Arts Council, and ''The Southeast Review.''

Personal

Ossmann was born in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coa ...

and raised there and in Richmond and

Vacaville, California Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in Northern California. Sitting approximately from Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is within the Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, Vacaville had a population of 102,386, making it th ...

. She moved to

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...

in 1985, and worked her way through college as a waitress, receiving her A.B. from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

in 1992, then earned her MFA from the

Vermont College of Fine Arts Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level art school in Montpelier, Vermont. It offers Master's degrees in low-residency and residential programs. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award winne ...

. She currently lives and works in

White River Junction, Vermont White River Junction is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Hartford in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,528 at the 2020 census, up from 2,286 in 2010, making it the largest com ...

.''Poets & Writers'' Directory , April Ossmann
/ref>

References

Sources

April Ossmann website

''Poets & Writers'' Directory, April Ossmann Listing

* ''Foreword Magazine'' , Archive: ''Foreword This Week'' , 07.23.03 , ''Independent Anniversaries of Note'' , ''30 Years-Alice James Books, Farmington, ME''

External links

FOUR WAY BOOKS , AUTHOR PAGE , April Ossmann

POEMS , ''Interim'' , Vol. 37, Issue 2 , April Ossmann

POEM , ''The Laurel Review'' Vol. 49, Issue 1 April Ossmann “Event Boundaries”

BOOK REVIEW , ''Library Journal'' , 04/01/2017 , ''Event Boundaries'' Reviewed by Karla Huston

ESSAY in ''Poets & Writers'' , ''Thinking Like an Editor: How to Order Your Poetry Manuscript'' , by April Ossmann , 02/28/2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ossmann, April Living people Writers from Santa Barbara, California Vermont College of Fine Arts alumni Dartmouth College alumni American publishers (people) American book editors Year of birth missing (living people) University of Maine at Farmington faculty Poets from Vermont American women poets American women academics 21st-century American women People from Vacaville, California