Professor of English
BFA, Emerson College; MFA, University of Pittsburgh; PhD, University of Nebraska
Email: eahl@plymouth.edu
Blog/Website: Liz Ahl Poetry
Author of Luck
Author of A Thirst That’s Partly Mine
Office: Ellen Reed 5
Phone: 630-535-2595
Liz Ahl is the author of Luck (Pecan Grove Press, 2010). Her first chapbook, A Thirst That’s Partly Mine, won the 2008 Slapering Hol Press chapbook contest. A third chapbook, Talking About the Weather, was published in a limited edition in 2012 by Seven Kitchens Press. A limited edition (30) collection of her poetry, On The Avenue of Eternal Peace, was designed and printed by Joe Ruffo (Lyra Press) and beautifully hand-bound by Denise Brady. Individual poems by Ahl have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. She has been a writing resident at the Vermont Studio Center, the Jentel Artist Residency Program, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Ahl’s interests as a poet include performance, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary work (letterpress printing, working with musicians, dancers and visual artists). Her work has been set to original symphonic music, combined with dance choreography, and riffed to improvisational jazz. She has read in galleries in collaboration with thematic visual art shows and has published broadsides and chapbooks of both her own work and the work of others.
Selected recent publications
“The E-mail’s Down,” “Medusa, On Winter,” “The Classics,” and “My Papers,”Mezzo Cammin, Vol. 8, No. 2, January 2014: http://www.mezzocammin.com/iambic.php?vol=2013&iss=2&cat=poetry&page=ahl
“Buoyancy,” in Conclave, Issue #6, December 2013
“The Thaw” and “The Paper House,” in Measure, Vol. 8, No. 1, Winter 2013
“Rage Sale” and “A Shoebox Full of Old Mix Tapes,” Blast Furnace, Vol. 3, No. 3, October 2013: http://www.blastfurnacepress.com/2013/10/blast-furnace-volume-3-issue-3.html
“Electric Homework” and “Eavesdropping on the Environmental Biologists,” in This Assignment is So Gay: LGBTIQ Poets on the Art Teaching (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013)
“When the Bread Fails,” Sliver of Stone, #6, April 201
“The Last Grapefruit,” “Appetites,” “Crows,” “On the Locksmith’s Retirement,” and “Four Birds on Thursday,” in OVS, Winter 2013
“Strung,” in String Poets, Vol II, Issue 2, January 2013: http://www.stringpoet.com/2012/12/4-liz-ahl/
“After the Fog,” Crab Orchard Review, 17:2, Summer/Fall 2012
Selected recent presentations
“Ear Candy: Teaching the Pleasures of Poetic Meter,” Panel moderator and chair, Associated Writing Programs (AWP) Conference, Chicago, March 2012
“Making a Mess to Clear the Way: Radical Re-vision of Poetry,” New Hampshire Writers Project Writers Day, March 2012
“Hands On: A Conversation about DIY and Craft Culture in a Digital World,” Roundtable moderator and chair, AWP Conference, Washington, DC, February 2011
Artist Residency Programs
Vermont Studio Center, July 2010
Jentel Artist Residency Program, Feb-March, 2008
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, May 2008
Other
2011 New Hampshire Literary Awards, Reader’s Choice Award in Poetry for Luck(Pecan Grove Press, 2010)
Judge, Scholastic Writing Awards, New Hampshire Writing Project, 2012
Performance Judge, Plymouth Regional High School “Poetry Out Loud” recitation competition, 2009-present