Dr. Susanna Childress, assistant professor of English at Hope College, has had work selected for inclusion in “The Best American Poetry 2015.”
To be published in September by Simon & Schuster, the 2015 edition of the anthology will feature poems chosen by guest editor Sherman Alexie from among works that first appeared in electronic and print journals. “The Best American Poetry” debuted in 1988.
Childress’ poem, “Careful, I Just Won a Prize at the Fair,” was originally published in the 27th issue of “Columbia Poetry Review” in the spring of 2014. Both the poem and an interview with Childress are available on the review’s website at:
http://columbiapoetryreviews.colum.edu/the-stream
She is also among the first authors featured in the new “House Picks” series of Awst Press, which is publishing three of her new poems and a new creative nonfiction essay that she wrote, in addition to republishing four of her poems and featuring an interview with her. More information is available at:
Childress has taught at Hope since 2006 with the exception of two years while she held a fellowship at Valparaiso University, where she taught writing and literature.
She has received a variety of awards for her writing and scholarship. Her first book, “Jagged with Love,” was selected by Billy Collins for the 2005 Brittingham Prize in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin and the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Her second book, “Entering the House of Awe,” was published in the Green Rose Series from New Issues Press and won the 2012 Society of Midland Authors Award. She has received an AWP Intro Journals Award, a Michener Center thesis fellowship, the Creative Writing Award in Poetry from the National Society of Arts and Letters, the Kingsbury fellowship from Florida State, and a Lilly Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities and the Arts.
Her publications also include poems in “Poetry in Michigan/Michigan in Poetry,” “The Southern Review,” “Alaska Quarterly Review,” “Colorado Review” and “Missouri Review”; short stories in “Gargoyle” and “Image”; and reviews in “Books and Culture,” “Valparaiso Poetry Review” and “Southeast Review.”
Childress is an associate poetry editor at “32 Poems,” writes short fiction and creative nonfiction, and comprises half of the music group Ordinary Neighbors, whose full-length album, “The Necessary Dark,” draws on her writing (the other half is her spouse, Joshua Banner).
She completed her undergraduate degree at Indiana Wesleyan University, and holds a master’s from The University of Texas at Austin and a PhD from Florida State University.