Molly Fisk

Poet

Nevada City, CA
California US
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Author's Bio

Molly Fisk is an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow (2019), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow (1999), and the author of two poetry collections: The More Difficult Beauty, and Listening to Winter, which was #4 in the California Poetry Series.

She's a commentator for NPR and community station KVMR-FM Nevada City. Her radio commentary has been collected in four volumes: Naming Your Teeth; Houston, We Have a Possum; Using Your Turn Signal Promotes World Peace; and Blow-Drying a Chicken.

Fisk was the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Nevada County, CA (2017-19) and is currently Poet Laureate of radio station KVMR and Hell's Backbone Grill in Boulder, UT.

Through her on-line workshop Poetry Boot Camp, she has taught more than 500 participants from around the world, including the South Pole. She also teaches expressive writing to cancer patients and trauma survivors, and works as a radical life coach.

Her honors include grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the California Arts Council, and the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize, the Dogwood Prize, the Billee Murray Denny Prize, and the National Writer's Union, Local 7 Prize.

Fisk lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in Nevada City, CA.

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"The More Difficult Beauty returns emotion to the American poem with its supple lines." — Molly Peacock

“...each piece is impeccably shaped and written.” — John Updike

“With unflinching honesty, kind humor, and vivid detail, Molly Fisk convinces us 'There's a loveliness to every ruined thing.' The More Difficult Beauty is a brave and generous book.” — Ellen Bass

“Complex, memorable, Listening to Winter makes vivid the real and dangerous work of what is called, contemptuously, 'confessionalism'...” — Linda McCarriston

Publications & Prizes

Books:
The More Difficult Beauty (Hip Pocket Press, 2010)
,
Listening to Winter (California Poetry Series, 2000)
,
Terrain, with D. Bellm & F. Hamer (Hip Pocket Press, 1998)
,
Salt Water Poems (Jungle Garden Press, 1994)
Prizes won: 

2019 American Poet Laureate Fellowship, Academy of American Poets
2010 Corporation for Public Broadcasting Grant, KVMR-FM
2007 Dogwood Prize (judge Marilyn Nelson)
2005 Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize in Poetry (judge Naomi Shihab Nye)
1999 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry
1998 California Arts Council Grant in Poetry
1997, '96, '95 Three Community Arts Grants from Marin County to teach poetry at Juvenile Hall (through California Poets in the Schools)
1996 Billee Murray Denny Poetry Contest (multiple judges)
1995 Marin County, CA Individual Arts Grant in Poetry
1992 National Writers Union Santa Cruz/Monterey Local 7 Competition (judge Adrienne Rich)

 

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
Feminist, White
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
San Francisco, CA
California
Raised in: 
San Francisco and Marin County, CA
California
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: May 24, 2019