Paul Guest is an American poet and

memoirist A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) ...

Early life and education

Paul Guest was born in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

. When he was twelve, Guest broke the third and fourth

vertebrae Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

in his neck in a bicycle accident, bruising his

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue that extends from the medulla oblongata in the lower brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone) of vertebrate animals. The center of the spinal c ...

and paralyzing him from the neck down. He is a

quadriplegic Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of Motor control, motor and/or Sense, sensory function in the Cervical vertebrae, cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weak ...

. He graduated from

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is part of the University of Tennessee System. History UTC was founde ...

and from

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of T ...

with an M.F.A. in 1999.

Career

Guest's poems have appeared in ''

Harper's ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'', ''

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 new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'', ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. History Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer ...

'', ''

The Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, 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. ''T ...

'', ''

The Missouri Review ''The Missouri Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1978 by the University of Missouri. It publishes fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction quarterly. With its open submission policy, ''The Missouri Review'' receives 12,000 manuscrip ...

'', ''

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 ...

'' and elsewhere. They are also published in collections as books.

Honors and awards

* 2011

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in Poetry * 2010

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

Discover Great New Writers series * 2007

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, ...

* 2006 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry * 2002

New Issues Press New Issues Poetry & Prose is a literary press associated with Western Michigan University. It was founded by poet and Western Michigan University professor Herbert S. Scott. Editors have included poets William Olsen and Nancy Eimers. The Huff ...

Poetry Prize

Published works

Poetry collections

* * * * *

Memoir

References

External links

"Author's blog"

"Character and Voice: Picks for National Poetry Month"

"Paul Guest", ''Fishouse''

* ttp://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/paul-guest#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation
''One More Theory About Happiness'' review, ''Creative Loafing Atlanta''
Online Poems *

* ttp://www.octopusmagazine.com/issue07/html/poets/paul_guest.htm#A "Apologia", ''Octopus'', Issue 7* ttp://www.diodepoetry.com/v1n2/content/guest_p.html "At Night, In November, Trying Not To Think Of Asphodel," "Austria," Bordering On The Tragic," "Oblivion: Letter Home, "Oblivion: Letter Home"
"DONALD DUCK'S LAMENT", ''Diagram 3.5''

"Landscape With Décolletage", ''Slate'', May 7, 2002

"Plenitude", ''Crazyhorse'', Number 67

"On the Persistence of the Letter as a Form"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guest, Paul Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male poets University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alumni Southern Illinois University alumni University of West Georgia faculty American memoirists American male non-fiction writers