Ruth Ellen Kocher
Encyclopedia
Ruth Ellen Kocher is an American poet.
. She earned her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University
in 1990, her MFA from Arizona State University
in 1994, and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University
in 1999. She has taught at Missouri Western State College, Southern Illinois University
and the University of Missouri
. She currently teaches in the MFA program at University of Colorado at Boulder
.
Bruce Weigl and John Balaban served as early role models for Kocher, and their backgrounds as working class poets writing out of the Vietnam War
are continually evident in the political leanings of her work. Kocher went on to study with Norman Dubie
, Alberto Rios
, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, and Jeannine Savard
in the graduate writing program at Arizona State University which as also turned out such writers as Lisa Chavez, Rick Noguchi, Steve Scafidi, Rigoberto Gonzalez
, Oliver de la Paz
, Tayari Jones
, Jeannie Clark
, Lee Barnes
and Miguel Murphy among others. Kocher has also attended workshops or seminars run by Yusef Komunyakaa
, Toi Derricotte
, Cornelius Eady
, Nicky Finney, Kwame Dawes
, Jean Valentine
, and Al Young
.
After studying in the Master of Fine Arts program, Kocher went on to earn a Ph.D in American Literature, concentrating on the work of Gertrude Stein
, Nella Larsen
, H.D.
, and other Modernist and Harlem Renaissance writers, focusing most specifically on the uses of multiple voice and modes of 'passing'. Her collaborative scholarly work on Frederick Douglass (Miller, Keith D., and Ruth Ellen Kocher. “Shattering Kidnapper's Heavenly Union: Interargumentation in Douglass's Oratory and Narrative.” Hall 1999. 81-87.) has become a staple pedagogical tool in teaching Douglass's Narrative. In addition to scholarly publication, Kocher has also taught and published non-fiction and memoir and run creative writing workshops in various retreats and writing programs across the country.
Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including Washington Square Journal, Ploughshares, Crab Orchard Review, Clackamas Literary Review, The Missouri Review, Ninth Letter
, African American Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Antioch, among others, and has been translated into Persian in the Iranian literary magazine She'r and the Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poets. She has been a fellow at the Bucknell Seminar, the Cave Canem Workshop, and Yaddo. She has also worked as a fellow in the Cave Canem Workshop and Retreat.
Kocher's work can be described as a marriage of lyric and innovative forms, following in the footsteps of mentors such as Goldberg and Dubie, and reminiscent of other inspirations such as Valentine and Komunyakaa
IOU: New Writing On Money. Ron Slate, ed. [Concord Free Press], Forthcoming.
Black Nature. Camille T. Dungy, ed. [University of Georgia Press], Athens Georgia, 2009.
From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just
Plain Sound Great. Camille T. Dungy, Matt O'Donnell, & Jeffrey Thomson eds., Gerald Stern
(Foreword), [Persea Books], NY, New York, 2009.
The McSweeney’s Book of : Poets Picking Poets, Dominic Luxford, ed. [McSweeney’s Books]: San Francisco, 2007.
An Anthology of Creative Writer Garden of Forking Paths. Beth Anstanding and Eric Killough, eds.
[Prentice Hall], 2006.
Commonwealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania. Marjorie Maddox, Jerry Wemple eds. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005.
New Bones: Contemporary Black Writers in America. Kevin Quashie, Keith Miller, Joyce Lausch, eds.
[Prentice Hall], 2000.
Life
She grew up in a housing project near the Susquehanna RiverSusquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
. She earned her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...
in 1990, her MFA from Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
in 1994, and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
in 1999. She has taught at Missouri Western State College, Southern Illinois University
Southern Illinois University
Southern Illinois University is a state university system based in Carbondale, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois region of the state, with multiple campuses...
and the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
. She currently teaches in the MFA program at University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
.
Bruce Weigl and John Balaban served as early role models for Kocher, and their backgrounds as working class poets writing out of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
are continually evident in the political leanings of her work. Kocher went on to study with Norman Dubie
Norman Dubie
Norman Dubie is an American poet.-Life:He is the author of more than eighteen books, often assuming historical personae in his works...
, Alberto Rios
Alberto Ríos
Alberto Álvaro Ríos is an American author of nine books and chapbooks of poetry, three collections of short stories, and a memoir. He is a Regents' professor of English at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona...
, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, and Jeannine Savard
Jeannine Savard
Jeannine Savard is an American poet, born in the Adirondack Mountain Region of New York State. Her poems are lyrical and involve an inner landscape that sometimes reflects that lush region of the country with its fir trees, lakes, waterfalls, and wildlife, as well as that more austere landscape of...
in the graduate writing program at Arizona State University which as also turned out such writers as Lisa Chavez, Rick Noguchi, Steve Scafidi, Rigoberto Gonzalez
Rigoberto González
Rigoberto González is an American writer and book critic. He is an editor and author of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and bilingual children's books, and self-identifies in his writing as a gay Chicano...
, Oliver de la Paz
Oliver de la Paz
Oliver de la Paz is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Furious Lullaby , and he has a new collection forthcoming, Requiem for the Orchard , winner of the Akron Prize for Poetry...
, Tayari Jones
Tayari Jones
Tayari Jones is an African American author and winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction...
, Jeannie Clark
Jeannie Clark
Jeannie Clark is a former professional wrestling manager and the former wife of three professional wrestlers, including Stone Cold Steve Austin...
, Lee Barnes
Lee Barnes
Lee Stratford Barnes was an American athlete from Utah who competed in the men's pole vault.He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and died in Oxnard, California....
and Miguel Murphy among others. Kocher has also attended workshops or seminars run by Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who currently teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly...
, Toi Derricotte
Toi Derricotte
Toi Derricotte is an American poet and a professor of writing at University of Pittsburgh.At Wayne State University she earned a B.A. in 1965 and an M.A...
, Cornelius Eady
Cornelius Eady
Cornelius Eady is an American poet focusing largely on matters of race and society, particularly the trials of the African-American race in the United States. His poetry often centers around jazz and blues, family life, violence, and societal problems stemming from questions of race and class...
, Nicky Finney, Kwame Dawes
Kwame Dawes
Kwame Senu Neville Dawes is a poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He currently works as editor-in-chief at the Prairie Schooner. -Life:...
, Jean Valentine
Jean Valentine
Jean Valentine is an American poet, and currently the New York State Poet . Her poetry collection, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003, was awarded the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry....
, and Al Young
Al Young
Al Young is an American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and professor. On May 15, 2005 he was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In appointing Young as Poet Laureate, the Governor praised him: "He is an educator and a man with a passion for the Arts...
.
After studying in the Master of Fine Arts program, Kocher went on to earn a Ph.D in American Literature, concentrating on the work of Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, Nella Larsen
Nella Larsen
Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen (born Nellie Walker (April 13, 1891 – March 30, 1964), was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. She published two novels and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, what she wrote earned...
, H.D.
H.D.
H.D. was an American poet, novelist and memoirist known for her association with the early 20th century avant-garde Imagist group of poets such as Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington...
, and other Modernist and Harlem Renaissance writers, focusing most specifically on the uses of multiple voice and modes of 'passing'. Her collaborative scholarly work on Frederick Douglass (Miller, Keith D., and Ruth Ellen Kocher. “Shattering Kidnapper's Heavenly Union: Interargumentation in Douglass's Oratory and Narrative.” Hall 1999. 81-87.) has become a staple pedagogical tool in teaching Douglass's Narrative. In addition to scholarly publication, Kocher has also taught and published non-fiction and memoir and run creative writing workshops in various retreats and writing programs across the country.
Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including Washington Square Journal, Ploughshares, Crab Orchard Review, Clackamas Literary Review, The Missouri Review, Ninth Letter
Ninth Letter
Ninth Letter is a literary magazine that publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. It is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the and the Creative Writing Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ninth Letter exists in two related but distinct forms: a biannual print...
, African American Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Antioch, among others, and has been translated into Persian in the Iranian literary magazine She'r and the Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poets. She has been a fellow at the Bucknell Seminar, the Cave Canem Workshop, and Yaddo. She has also worked as a fellow in the Cave Canem Workshop and Retreat.
Kocher's work can be described as a marriage of lyric and innovative forms, following in the footsteps of mentors such as Goldberg and Dubie, and reminiscent of other inspirations such as Valentine and Komunyakaa
Awards
- Green Rose Prize in Poetry, for When the Moon Knows You're Wandering
- Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, for Desdemona's Fire
Works
- "Alice Coltrane and Discovers the World G/god is B/born", Blackbird, Fall 2009
- "string theory", Blackbird, Fall 2009
- One Girl Babylon (New Issues PressNew Issues PressNew Issues Press is a literary press associated with Western Michigan University. It was founded by poet and Western Michigan University professor Herbert S. Scott...
, 2003) ISBN 9781930974333 - When the Moon Knows You're Wandering (New Issues Press, 2002) ISBN 9781930974111
- Desdemona's Fire (Lotus Press, 1999) ISBN 9780916418830
Anthologies
Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poets. Charles Rowell, ed. Forthcoming.IOU: New Writing On Money. Ron Slate, ed. [Concord Free Press], Forthcoming.
Black Nature. Camille T. Dungy, ed. [University of Georgia Press], Athens Georgia, 2009.
From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just
Plain Sound Great. Camille T. Dungy, Matt O'Donnell, & Jeffrey Thomson eds., Gerald Stern
(Foreword), [Persea Books], NY, New York, 2009.
The McSweeney’s Book of : Poets Picking Poets, Dominic Luxford, ed. [McSweeney’s Books]: San Francisco, 2007.
An Anthology of Creative Writer Garden of Forking Paths. Beth Anstanding and Eric Killough, eds.
[Prentice Hall], 2006.
Commonwealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania. Marjorie Maddox, Jerry Wemple eds. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005.
New Bones: Contemporary Black Writers in America. Kevin Quashie, Keith Miller, Joyce Lausch, eds.
[Prentice Hall], 2000.
External links
- Audio: Ruth Ellen Kocher Reading for Fishousepoems.org
- Review: BNET > Black Issues Book Review > March/April 2004 > Review of One Girl Babylon by Holly Bass
- UTNE Reader > Lotus Press: Ruth Ellen Kocher's Desdemona's Fire by Jon Spayde > July/August 2000
- New Issues Press > Author Page > Ruth Ellen Kocher