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Shara McCallum

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Shara McCallum
BornKingston, Jamaica
Alma materUniversity of Miami,
University of Maryland, College Park
Binghamton University
GenrePoetry
Notable awardsNational Endowment for the Arts Fellowship

Shara McCallum is an American poet. She was awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.[1] McCallum is the author of four poetry collections and lives in Pennsylvania.

Life and work

McCallum was born in Kingston, Jamaica to an African Jamaican father and Venezuelan mother.[2] Her family migrated to the United States when she was nine. She graduated from the University of Miami, from the University of Maryland[3] with an M.F.A., and from Binghamton University in New York with a PhD.[4] She has taught at the Stonecoast MFA program.[5]

McCallum directs the Stadler Center for Poetry and taught creative writing and literature at Bucknell University.[6][7] McCallum is now a professor of English at Penn State University. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family.[8]

McCallum's work has appeared in The Antioch Review,[9][10] Callaloo,[11] Chelsea, The Iowa Review, Verse, Creative Nonfiction, Seneca Review,[12] and Witness.

Reception

Shara McCallum's first collection, The Water Between Us, may be a typical first book of poetry that moves through the torments and glories of growing up, but it is not a typical collection. McCallum's poems are startling in their breadth of experience and language. From the beginning McCallum asks us to free our expectations with her apt epigraph, "Only the magic and the dream are true. All the rest's a lie"[13]

The poems in The Water Between Us work to a compelling cumulative effect. The title of the collection, the poet’s first, refers not only to the water of birth but also to the mythological waters of memory and the unconscious.[14]

Honors and awards

Publications

Full-length poetry collections

  • The Water Between Us. University of Pittsburgh Press. 1999. ISBN 978-0-8229-5710-2.
  • Song of Thieves. University of Pittsburgh Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8229-5813-0.
  • This Strange Land (Alice James Books, forthcoming)[15]
  • Madwoman (Alice James Books 2017)[16]

Nonfiction

Anthology publications

References

  1. ^ a b c d National Endowment of the Arts 2011 Poetry Fellows Archived 27 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Nea.gov. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  2. ^ a b Foundation, Poetry (4 February 2020). "Shara McCallum". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  3. ^ College Park Magazine | Feature | University of Maryland Archived 30 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Urhome.umd.edu (18 October 1972). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  4. ^ Shara McCallum, Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Poets.org. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  5. ^ [1] Archived 6 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ From the Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry || Bucknell University. Bucknell.edu. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  7. ^ Shara McCallum || Bucknell University. Bucknell.edu (1 October 2011). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  8. ^ Shara McCallum | Directory of Writers | Poets & Writers. Pw.org (16 June 2009). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  9. ^ Shara McCallum (Spring 2001). "Jamaica, October 18, 1972". The Antioch Review. 59 (2): 281. doi:10.2307/4614160. JSTOR 4614160.
  10. ^ Shara McCallum (Autumn 2004). "Penelope". The Antioch Review. 62 (4): 707. doi:10.2307/4614740. JSTOR 4614740.
  11. ^ Project MUSE – Callaloo – Talisman. Muse.jhu.edu. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
  12. ^ The Seneca Review. Hobart Student Association. 1998.
  13. ^ Magdelyn Hammond. "The Water Between Us, by Shara McCallum: A Review". Smartish Pace.
  14. ^ Tina Barr. "Arts in Society: Microreviews: October/November 2000". Boston Review. 25 (5).
  15. ^ Alice James Books > News & Events Archived 5 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ McCallum, Shara, 1972- (2017). Madwoman. Farmington, Maine. ISBN 978-1-938584-28-2. OCLC 945949128.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)