EQP Title Nominated for The Pushcart Prize

Works from poet Bruce Guernsey's book From Rain: Poems, 1970 - 2010 have been nominated for the 38th edition of The Pushcart Prize - Best of the Small Presses series. The Pushcart Prize, which has been published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America. Hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in the pages of their annual collections. Past nominees have included Raymond Carver, Tim O’Brien, Jayne Anne Phillips, Charles Baxter, Andre Dubus, Susan Minot, Mona Simpson, John Irving, Rick Moody.

Guernsey's book has been widely acclaimed and has garnered enthusiastic praise from many of today's leading poets:

D. Nurkse, Guggenheim Fellow and Professor of Writing at Sarah Lawrence  ~ “FROM RAIN is an authoritative work from an important poet.” 

Claudia Emerson, Winner, Pulitzer Prize in Poetry 2006  ~ “From Rain is finally a beautifully mortised, cohesive whole, the collection very much like 'this paper you touch, a metaphor for earth.' This truly is an amazing collection.”

Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006. ~ "A book like this is exactly what we poets dream of leaving behind when we're gone."

Sheryl St. Germain, Director, MFA Program, Chatham University  ~ "These haunting, exquisitely crafted poems navigate the troubled waters of the human spirit. Guernsey’s arresting lyrics offer bold, fresh metaphors that, like lighthouses, illuminate our most intimate seas."           

M. Van Walleghen, past winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets and retired Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was the first director of the MFA in Creative Writing program  ~ "FROM RAIN is a remarkably accomplished collection of poetry published by the distinguished poet Bruce Guernsey from books and magazines he's appeared in over the last forty years. Be assured that FROM RAIN is one of the most enjoyable books of American poetry published in the last ten years or so." 

A native New Englander, Bruce Guernsey is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Eastern Illinois University where he taught for twenty-five years.  He has also taught at William and Mary, Johns Hopkins, and Virginia Wesleyan where he was Poet in Residence for four years.

His four collections and seven chapbooks include January Thaw (University of Pittsburgh Press) and, most recently, New England Primer from Cherry Grove/WordTech. He is a former editor of The Spoon River Poetry Review.

The recipient of fellowships from the NEA, the MacDowell Colony, and the Illinois Arts Council, Guernsey has been a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in American Poetry in Portugal and Greece. He has also twice sailed around the world as a faculty member with Semester at Sea.

He and his wife divide their time between their homes in Charleston, Illinois and Bethel, Maine.
www.bruceguernsey.com