Beth Ann Fennelly 
Minnesota
USA Ford Fellow, Literature

Beth Ann Fennelly writes poems that reveal her fascination with language, working in a variety of styles—from free verse to Shakespearean sonnets. Since the birth of her child, Fennelly has written poetry and prose works that explore the relationship between mother and infant. She has produced two books of poetry; the first, Open House, won the Kenyon Review Prize and the GLCA New Writers Award and was chosen as a BookSense Top Ten Poetry Pick. She received her MFA from the University of Arkansas in 1998 and is assistant professor of English at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. She has received two NEA Fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, and an Academy of American Poets Prize, among other honors. Her writings have been included in periodicals such as The Kenyon Review, The Bloomsbury Review, and The Oxford American, and her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Best American Poetry (1996, 2005, and 2006 editions).

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Portrait photo courtesy Maude Schuyler Clay
Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother, 2006; photo courtesy W. W. Norton