Mari L'Esperance

Poet

Author's Bio

Mari L'Esperance is a poet, writer, and editor who was born in Kobe, Japan to a Japanese mother and a French Canadian-New Englander father and raised in the Pacific Rim. Her publications include The Darkened Temple (winner of a Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry - U. of Nebraska Press), Begin Here (winner of a Sarasota Poetry Theatre Press Chapbook Prize), and Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine (co-edited with Tomás Q. Morín - Prairie Lights Books / U. of Iowa Press). A graduate of the Creative Writing Program at New York University, where she was a New York Times Company Foundation Creative Writing Fellow, Mari also holds an MA in Counseling Psychology and a BA in Journalism.

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
They Rise Like a Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets (Blue Oak Press, 2022)
,
Counterclaims: Poets and Poetries, Talking Back (Dalkey Archive Press, 2020)
,
Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine (a collection of essays co-edited with Tomás Q. Morín) (Prairie Lights Books, 2013)
,
Prairie Schooner Book Prize Tenth Anniversary Reader (University of Nebraska Press, 2013)
Books:
Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine (a collection of essays co-edited with Tomás Q. Morín) (Prairie Lights Books, 2013)
,
The Darkened Temple (University of Nebraska Press, 2008)
Chapbook:
Begin Here (Sarasota Poetry Theater Press, 2000)
Journals:
Americas Review
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Barnabe Mountain Review
, ,
Connotation Press: An Online Artifact
,
International Poetry Review
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Kyoto Journal
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Many Mountains Moving
,
MiPOesias
,
Pequod
, , , , ,
Yomimono
,
Zocalo Public Square
Prizes won: 

Djerassi Resident Artists Program Residency Fellowship; Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry; Hedgebrook Residency Fellowship; Sarasota Poetry Theatre Press Chapbook Prize; New York Times Foundation Creative Writing Fellowship

More Information

Identifies as: 
Mixed-Race
Born in: 
Kobe
Japan
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Aug 22, 2022