FEATURED POET/WRITER

Karen Skolfield

Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA (2019-2021)

Karen Skolfield has written two award-winning books of poetry: Frost in the Low Areas (Zone 3 Press, 2013) — winner of the 2014 PEN/New England Award in Poetry, and her latest collection, Battle Dress (W. W. Norton, 2019) — winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize. She is Northampton, Massachusetts’s current poet laureate, serving until 2021. A parent and army veteran, she teaches writing to engineering students at the University of Massachusetts and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

“After reading her poems, I will never again look at a baby, a fossil, a painting, a key, a homunculus—or myself—as I had before. If poetry is meant to challenge and change our perceptions of the world and ourselves, then Karen is by all means an ex… — “After reading her poems, I will never again look at a baby, a fossil, a painting, a key, a homunculus—or myself—as I had before. If poetry is meant to challenge and change our perceptions of the world and ourselves, then Karen is by all means an extraordinary poet.”
— *Richard Blanco*
*Frost in the Low Areas: Poems* by Karen Skolfield
Published by *Zone 3 Press* (2013)
© Karen Skolfield

“A terrific and sometimes terrifying collection―morally complex, rhythmic, tough-minded, and original.”― Rosanna Warren, 2018 Barnard Women Poets Prize citationBattle Dress: Poems by Karen SkolfieldPublished by W. W. Norton (2019)© Karen Skolfield — *“A terrific and sometimes terrifying collection―morally complex, rhythmic, tough-minded, and original.”*
― *Rosanna Warren, 2018 Barnard Women Poets Prize citation*
*Battle Dress: Poems* by Karen Skolfield
Published by *W. W. Norton* (2019)
© Karen Skolfield

Books are available now from:

AMHERST BOOKS

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— AWARDS AND PRAISE FOR KAREN SKOLFIELD —

awarded the 2016 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize in poetry from The Missouri Review
awarded the 2015 Robert H. Winner award from the Poetry Society of America
awarded the 2015 Arts & Humanities Award from New England Public Radio
received fellowships and awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Split This Rock, Ucross Foundation, Hedgebrook, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center