Faculty Member’s New Poetry Book Honored

Part of English Professor Jon Andersen’s fall 2016 sabbatical was dedicated to finishing his second full-length collection of poetry, Augur. The book has been named the recipient of the 2017 David Martinson – Meadowhawk Prize and will be published by the literary arts press Red Dragonfly Press. The book will be available in early May.

Red Dragonfly Press is based in Minnesota and has been operating for 20 years, publishing work by emerging voices along with established poets and writers like Robert Bly, Louise Erdrich, and Barry Lopez. “The poems in Augur are attempts, in prescribed and open forms, to ‘decode’ the signs of a world in the midst of tremendous and often bewildering upheaval,” said Andersen. “The augurs of ancient Rome were charged with studying natural phenomena, like the flight habits of birds, in order to look for propitious or unfavorable omens,” he explained. “Written from the interlocking perspectives of father, husband, son, brother, educator, and citizen, the poems seek to engage life with clarity,” he added.

Andersen’s first book, Stomp and Sing, was published by Curbstone Press in 2005 and is currently available from Northwestern University Press.