Kim Bridgford

Kim Bridgford
Born	1959
Occupation	professor, editor, poet, fiction writer, critic
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Iowa (B.A. and M.F.A.) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Ph.D.)
Literary movement	New Formalism
Notable awards	Donald Justice Poetry Prize, 2007. Connecticut Professor of the Year, 1994.
Spouse	Peter Duval
Children	Nick Duval

Kim Bridgford is an award-winning poet, editor, college professor, fiction writer, and critic. In her poetry, she writes primarily in traditional forms, of which the sonnet is her form of choice. She is the director of the West Chester University Poetry Center.

As editor-in-chief at Mezzo Cammin, a journal of poetry by women, she founded The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project, which is designed to become the world's largest database of women poets. She also edited Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose.

Life

Kim Bridgford was born in 1959. She grew up in Coal Valley, Illinois.

She received both her bachelor's degree and master's in fine arts from the University of Iowa. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.

Bridgford joined the faculty of Fairfield University in Connecticut in 1989.

In 1994, she moved to Wallingford, Connecticut with her husband Peter Duval, also an award-winning author of fiction and who later became a professor at Fairfield University as well. In 1996, their son, Nick, was born.

In August 2010, she became the current director of the West Chester University Poetry Center in Pennsylvania, moving to the state with her family. She had been a professor of English at Fairfield University for 21 years.

Distinctions

In 1994, Bridgford was named Connecticut Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 1999, she obtained a fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Bridgford was the 2007 Touring Poet for the Connecticut Poetry Circuit. That year, her book Undone received the 2007 Donald Justice Poetry Award.

She is also the recipient of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.

Bibliography

Bridgford has written three books of poetry:

• Undone (Wordtech Communications, April 2003))
• Instead of Maps (Wordtech Communications, May 1, 2005), nominated for the Poets' Prize
• In the Extreme: Sonnets about World Records (Contemporary Poetry Review Press; First edition, June 5, 2007), winner of Donald Justice Poetry Prize

In addition, Bridgford's poetry has appeared in The North American Review, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Iowa Review.

While best known as a poet, she also writes fiction, which have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Redbook.

External links

• Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose
• Donald Justice Poetry Prize