Lisa Russ Spaar is a contemporary 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 wr ...

, professor, and essayist. She is currently a professor of English and Creative Writing at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...

and the director of the Area Program in Poetry Writing. She is the author of numerous books of poetry, most recentl
''Vanitas, Rough: Poems''
an
''Satin Cash: Poems''
Her latest collection, ''Orexia,'' was published b
Persea Books
in 2017. Her poem
''Temple Gaudete''
published in

IMAGE Journal An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensi ...

, won a 2016

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors ar ...

. Spaar has also edited several anthologies, includin
All That Mighty Heart: London Poems
which

Billy Collins William James Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York (retired, 2016). Collins ...

says "gathers mighty swirl of poetry into a gorgeous volume whose variety and heft rival the city itself— its smoke, roar, and flow."

Education

Spaar graduated summa cum laude from the

with a B.A. in 1978. Two years later, in 1980, she returned to the University of Virginia to complete her education with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry).

Poetry

Spaar's books of poetry include ''Orexia'' (2017)
''Vanitas, Rough''
(2012),
Satin Cash: Poems
' 2008
''Blue Venus''
(2004), an
''Glass Town''
(1999), for which she won the

Rona Jaffe Rona Jaffe (June 12, 1931 – December 30, 2005) was an American novelist who published numerous works from 1958 to 2003. During the 1960s, she also wrote cultural pieces for '' Cosmopolitan''. Biography Jaffe was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1 ...

Award for Emerging Women Writers in 2000. Spaar's poems have been widely published in many places, including

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

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 ...

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phi ...

SLATE Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

The Virginia Quarterly Review The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussion"' ...

''Plume''
''The Alabama Literary Review'', Blackbird, ''Spirituality & Health'', Cerise Press, ''Connotations Press'', ''Waxwing'', ''TUBA'',

32 Poems ''32 Poems Magazine'' (''32 Poems'') is a literary magazine, founded in the American states of Maryland and Texas in 2003, that has published poems from writers around the world. About This independent magazine, founded by Deborah Ager and John P ...

, Shenandoah,

TriQuarterly ''TriQuarterly'' is a name shared by an American literary magazine and a series of books, both operating under the aegis of Northwestern University Press. The journal is published twice a year and features fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, liter ...

The Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, United States, 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 ...

The Yale Review ''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on ...

Denver Quarterly The ''Denver Quarterly'' (known as ''The University of Denver Quarterly'' until 1970) is an avant-garde literary journal based at the University of Denver. Founded in 1966 by novelist John Edward Williams. ''Publisher'' ''Denver Quarterly'' ...

, Quarterly West
''Verse''''Poetry East''''Drunken Boat''''The Hollins Critic''
The Southwest Review, ''Crazyhorse''
The Laurel Review
Bellingham Review,

College English ''College English'' is an official publication of the American National Council of Teachers of English and is aimed at college-level teachers and scholars of English. The peer-reviewed journal publishes articles on a range of topics related to the ...

''Meridian''''Brilliant Corners''''The Atlanta Review''''The Southern Poetry Review''

Poet Lore ''Poet Lore'' is an English-language literary magazine based in Bethesda, Maryland. Established in 1889 by Charlotte Porter and Helen Archibald Clarke, two progressive young Shakespeare scholars who believed in the evolutionary nature of literatu ...

''Free Verse''''Carolina Quarterly''
American Literary Review, ''64'',

Indiana Review ''Indiana Review'' (''IR'') is a small, student-run literary magazine at Indiana University Bloomington. Founded in 1976, it has a circulation of about 2,000. A biannual review, ''IR'' publishes essays, fiction, graphic arts, interviews, poetry ...

Smartish Pace ''Smartish Pace'' is a non-profit, independent literary journal based in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The magazine was founded in 1999 by Stephen Reichert (authored by member of journal's staff, published in an alumni magazine) who was a University o ...

, & elsewhere.

Prose

Currently, Spaar writes a series of articles entitled "Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry," published through the

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012 ...

. Spaar has contributed more than 70 articles to the

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to ...

, including the ''Monday's Poem'' series and the ''Spaar on Poetry'' series.

Teaching

Spaar has received numerous teaching honors and awards.

Awards

* 2011

Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize Carole is a feminine given name (see Carl for more information) and occasionally a surname. Carole may refer to: Given name *Carole B. Balin (born 1964), American Reform rabbi, professor of Jewish history * Carole Bayer Sager (born 1947), America ...

* 2009/2010

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

* 2001 Emily Clark Balch Award of the Virginia Quarterly Review * 2000

Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award was an award given annually to beginning women writers. Established in 1995 by American author Rona Jaffe, the Foundation offers grants to writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The award w ...

* 1997 Finalist,

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 ch ...

* 1996 Virginia Commission for the Arts Individual Artists Award * 1978 Academy of American Poets Prize - University of Virginia * 1980 Hoyns Fellowship in Poetry - University of Virginia

Bibliography

* * * ''Blind Boy on Skates'', Trilobite Chapbooks of the University of Northern Texas Press, 1987. * * * ''Blue Venus: Poems'', Persea Books, 2004. *''The Land of Wandering'', University of Virginia Press, 2005 * * * * *''Monticello in Mind: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Jefferson'', University of Virginia Press, 2016 * *''More Truly & More Strange: 100 Contemporary Self-Portrait Poems'', Persea Books, 2020 *''Madrigalia: New and Selected Poems'', Persea Books, 2021 *''Paradise Close'',Persea Books, 2022

Anthologies

Criticism

"God-Hunger Redux", ''Virginia Quarterly Review'', Winter 2009

List of poems

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spaar, Lisa Russ Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Virginia alumni University of Virginia faculty American women poets Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award winners American women academics 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers