Poet, Editor, Teacher

In much of my poetry, I focus on how language mediates our experience of place (both natural and built environments) and history. I'm currently interested in two particular sites of language: epitaphs and monuments found in cemeteries, and interpretive signs found in national and state parks that describe natural phenomena and historical events. My first book manuscript, Ecotone (in progress), uses these sites as jumping-off points for thinking about the relationship(s) between the living and the dead.

I'm also interested in the ways in which women and girls experience, articulate, and embody work and desire (both physically and intellectually/creatively)—how we negotiate internal and external pressures, as well as the struggle to both embrace and destroy what our desire has created. When are we hindered, and when are we inspired by that which we desire? What modes of survival are inherent in our work? I explore these ideas in my chapbook, Girls Mistaken for Ghosts, and other works in progress.

Colleen Coyne

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