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 The University of Nebraska Press published Just Breathe Normally, Peggy Shumaker's new book of lyrical nonfiction. Her most recent book of poetry is Blaze, a collection of sensual Alaskan paintings and poems. This collaboration with the painter Kesler Woodward was published in 2005 by Red Hen Press. Her previous books include Underground Rivers (Red Hen Press), Wings Moist from the Other World, The Circle of Totems, Braided River, and Esperanza's Hair. Her poems have been published in Russia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, and throughout the United States. Her nonfiction has appeared in Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction (Norton), A Road of Her Own (Fulcrum), Under Northern Lights (U. WA Press), A Year in Place (U. UT Press), Prairie Schooner and Ascent.
Peggy Shumaker was born in La Mesa, California, and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. She earned her B.A. in English and M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. Shumaker was writer in residence for the Arizona Commission on the Arts, working with prison inmates, honors students, gang members, deaf adults, teen parents, little kids, library patrons, and elderly folks. She has given readings in art galleries, a governor's mansion, a clearing in the woods, an abandoned bank, on reservations, in libraries, at a gold dredge, under the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon, on a riverboat, and at many bookstores, community centers, and universities
Shumaker won a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and several awards for teaching. She served as Poet in Residence at the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University and as President of the Board of Directors of the Associated Writing Programs. Professor emerita from University of Alaska Fairbanks, Shumaker was Chair of the English Department and Director of the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing. She currently teaches in the low-residency Rainier Writing Workshop. Peggy Shumaker and her husband Joe Usibelli live in Fairbanks, Alaska, and travel widely.
Brief bio note
Peggy Shumaker's newest book is Just Breathe Normally (University of Nebraska Press, 2007). Her most recent collection of poems is Blaze, a collaboration with the painter Kesler Woodward (Red Hen Press). She teaches in the low-residency MFA Rainier Writing Workshop. Please visit her web site at www.peggyshumaker.com.
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Honors and Awards (selected)
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry
- Stadler Center for Poetry, Bucknell University Poet-in-Residence
- Usibelli Distinguished Award for Teaching
Community Workshops and Residencies (selected)
Volcano Art Center (Big Island of Hawaii); Valley Center for the Deaf (deaf adults); state prisons in Arizona and Alaska; Valle del Sol (barrio youth); Navajo, Pima, Yaqui communities; Santa Rosa Ranch School, Shonto Boarding School, Sacaton Alternative School; Show Low Heritage Fair; Young Writers at Work (programs in public libraries); teen parents; teachers, gifted and talented students; older returning students; gang members; at-risk middle school and high school students; rural students; adult first-time readers. Writing residencies for all ages and educational levels, in Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Virginia, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Hawaii, Minnesota, Florida, Washington, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, New York, Alabama, California, Iowa...
Readings, Lectures & Conferences (selected)
Poetic Ecologies Conference (Brussels, Belguim, 2008), Academy of American Poets events in New York, Arizona, and Alaska; Writers at Work, young writers and poetry workshop, (Utah);
Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa/Nimrod magazine; Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference, Homer, AK; Southern Utah University; Utah State Council on the Arts; Panguitch Library; Port Townsend Writers Conference; Kodiak, Bethel, Juneau, Kenai, Sitka, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Unalaska (Aleutians); Wyoming Artspeak; Southwest Poetry Festival; Tucson Poetry Festival; Bisbee Poetry Festival; Virginia State Poetry Society; Virginia Commonwealth University; Jewish Community Center (Norfolk); University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University; Iowa State University; University of Hawaii at Manoa; Bethel College, St. Paul MN; College of Santa Fe-Shapes of Poetry in the 21st Century; Whidbey Island Writers Conference; UC Riverside Writers Week; UC Chico; Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival; Rainier Writing Workshop Low-Residency MFA; many events in bookstores, galleries, libraries, coffeehouses, community gathering places.
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University Teaching
- University of Arizona
- Arizona State University
- Old Dominion University
- Bucknell University
- Pacific Lutheran University
- Rainier Writing Workshop Low-Residency MFA
- University of Alaska Fairbanks
- Visiting Writer at dozens of universities
Courses Taught
- Creative Writing-Poetry, fiction, nonfiction (graduate, undergraduate, community, young writers)
- Forms of Poetry (graduate and undergraduate)
- Contemporary World Poetry (graduate and undergraduate)
- Contemporary American Poetry (graduate)
- Native American Literature (graduate and undergraduate)
- Latin American Literature
- Women in Literature/Women's Literature
- Composition, all levels; genre survey, first and second year
- Technical Projects in Writing
- Literary Magazines (editing, production, publication, promotion)
- Creative Writing in the Classroom (for teachers and for MFAs)
- Prose Poems, Paragraphs, Brief Lyric Nonfiction
- Thesis Advising
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Selected Readings, workshops, panels
- Sam Weller's Bookstore, Salt Lake City
- Southern Utah University Writers Conference, Cedar Breaks
- Whidbey Island Writers Conference (WA)
- Academy of American Poets, readings in Arizona, NYC, Alaska
- Poet's House, NYC
- CSU Chico
- Sweet Briar College, VA
- Old Dominion University Literary Festival
- SUNY Brockport Writers Forum
- Cody's Bookstore, Berkeley
- Dia de Los Muertos celebration, Santa Rosa Junior College, Petaluma
- Living Web of Words, Mesa Community College, Mesa AZ
- Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe AZ
- Arizona State Poetry Society
- Writing Rendezvous, Anchorage AK
- 2004 AWP Conference in Chicago, panel on Virginia Woolf's "On Being Ill" and "Writing from the Wet Spot: Where Flesh and Words Collide."
- 2005 AWP Conference in Vancouver, B.C. Reading by Alaskan Poets, Reading to celebrate Bellingham Review
- ASU Graduate Student Brown Bag Talk
- Writers at Work, SLC UT Workshops, panel, reading
- Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Classes, reading
- Kachemak Bay Writers Conference, Homer AK
- Rainier Writing Workshop (Tacoma) MFA workshops, seminars, reading
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Editing
- Founding Editor, Boreal Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press publishing books by Alaskan writers
- Guest editor, poetry, Alaska Quarterly Review, Spring issue 2002
- Hidden Alaska Feature, Alaska Quarterly Review, 2006.
- Contributing Editor, AQR, 2002-present
Judging (selected)
- Prairie Schooner Book Award in Poetry
- Benjamin Saltman Award for Poetry (book publication award)
- Theresa Wilhoit Thesis Fellowship Competition, AZ State Univ.
- Western States Book Award
- Nimrod Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry
- Writers@Work Poetry Fellowship
- National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts scholarships
- Arizona Commission on the Arts Poetry Fellowships
- Ohio Arts Council Poetry Fellowships
- Utah Arts Council Poetry Fellowships
- Wyoming Arts Council Poetry Fellowships
- Mesa Community College Creative Writing Contest
- Arizona State Poetry Society
- Bellingham Review, 49th Parallel Award
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