News and Events
Features
The Journal/OSU Press Announces 2007 Poetry Book Prize Winner
Mark Mark Svenvold’s collection of poetry, Empire Burlesque, was recently selected for The Journal/Ohio State University Press Award in Poetry. The award includes publication as well as the Charles B. Wheeler prize of $3,000.
“Choosing only one manuscript out of six hundred was a more daunting task than I thought it would be,” said Kathy Fagan, judge for this year’s contest. “But I ultimately chose the winner's manuscript because it held my attention from beginning to end not just once but several times. Mark Svenvold’s Empire Burlesque—at once historical, lyrical, laugh-out-loud funny, and impeccably well-crafted—will most assuredly make a splash for both our contest and the press.”
Mark Svenvold's poetry has been published widely in Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Agni, The Iowa Review, The Journal, and Swink. He is winner of a Discovery/The Nation poetry prize. His first collection of poems, Soul Data, won the Vassar Miller Poetry Prize, selected by Heather McHugh. His nonfiction books are Big Weather: Chasing Tornadoes in the Heart of America, (Henry Holt & Co., 2005) and Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw, (Basic Books, 2002), a BookSense 76 Pick. He lives and works in New York City with his wife, the novelist Martha McPhee, and their two children.
