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By Courtney Morin ’10
Along with publishing a new novella this year, Lee Upton, professor of English and writer-in-residence, has received a number of honors.
Upton’s novella, The Guide to the Flying Island, received the Miami University Press Novella Award and will be published by Miami this year. Her poem “Clairvoyance,” from Undid in the Land of Undone, her award-winning fifth volume of poetry, has been chosen by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book as a featured poem for the Public Poetry Project. It will appear on posters distributed to libraries, schools, bookstores, coffee shops, and universities across Pennsylvania.
In addition to teaching courses on poetry and creative writing, Upton organizes the College’s annual celebration of National Poetry Month. Lafayette has honored her with the Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award, Mary Louise Van Artsdalen Award for Scholarship, and Jones Faculty Lecture Award.
Miami University Press calls Upton’s prose evocative and atmospheric: “The Guide to the Flying Island is at once a ghost story, a mystery, and a meditation on the ways our present lives remain haunted by the secrets and the sins of our pasts.” The work is Upton’s 11th book.
Undid in the Land of Undone was awarded a silver medal in ForeWord Magazine’s independent book of the year competition. Upton is the recipient of the National Poetry Series Award, Pushcart Prize, and Georgia Contemporary Poetry Series Award (twice), in addition to both the Lyric Poetry Award and The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America.
In the fall, Upton served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts in the literature (poetry) category.