Kevin Prufer

Kevin D. Prufer (born 1969 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American poet, academic, editor, and essayist. His most recent books are In A Beautiful Country (Four Way Books, 2011) and National Anthem (Four Way Books, 2008). He has published poems, essays, and reviews in literary journals and magazines including American Book Review, American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Colorado Review, Shenandoah, Field, The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, Boston Review, Georgia Review,  and in The Best American Poetry (2003 & 2009). His honors include three Pushcart Prizes, and awards from the Poetry Society of America, the Academy of American Poets, The Lannan Foundation and other organizations. His first book, Strange Wood, received the 1997 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize (formerly the Winthrop Prize). Most recently he was awarded a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry.

After Prufer received a B.A. at Wesleyan University and an M.A. at the Hollins University Writing Program, he went on to earn an MFA at Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently Professor of English in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston and Editor-at-Large of Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing, Associate Editor of American Book Review, and the former Vice President/Secretary of the National Book Critics Circle. Prufer currently resides in Houston, Texas with artist and critic Mary Hallab.

Recognition

 * 2011 Finalist, The Rilke Prize
 * Best American Poetry 2010
 * 2010 Lannan Foundation Fellowship
 * 2009 Finalist, The Poets Prize, 2009
 * 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry
 * 2007 Pushcart Prize
 * 2006 George Bogin Memorial Award
 * 2004 George Bogin Memorial Award
 * 2004 Pushcart Prize
 * Best American Poetry 2003
 * 2002 Pushcart Prize
 * 1997 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize

Poetry

 * Strange Wood. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1998.
 * The Finger Bone. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2002.
 * Fallen from a Chariot. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2005.
 * National Anthem. Four Way Books, 2008.
 * In A Beautiful Country. Four Way Books, 2011.

Edited

 * Dunstan Thompson: On the Life & Work of a Lost American Master (with D.A. Powell). Pleiades Press, 2010.
 * New European Poets (with Wayne Miller). St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2008,
 * Dark Horses: Poets on Overlooked Poems (with Joy Katz). University of Illinois Press, 2007.
 * The New Young American Poets. Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.