Each day leading up to the April 16 announcement of the Minnesota Book Awards, and in collaboration with community editors from the award-winning Saint Paul Almanac, we highlight one of the thirty-two finalists. Today we feature 2016 Poetry finalist:
Home Studies by Julie Gard
Published by: New Rivers Press
Category Sponsor: Wellington Management
Synopsis by Colleen Casey, Saint Paul Almanac
A collection of short interrelated prose poems, Home Studies captures aspects of everyday life in the Upper Midwest as it explores the themes of home, place, identity, parenting and family. The individual poems are like mosaic pieces, beautiful on their own, while contributing richness, texture and complexity to the overall collection. The individual poems, as well as the series, speak eloquently of the specific, intimate and personal, yet evoke the universal. Home Studies won the 2013 Many Voices Award from New Rivers Press.
Author Bio:
Julie Gard’s prose poems and stories have appeared in more than 50 literary magazines and anthologies. Her publications include Russia in 17 Objects, which was awarded first place in the Tiger’s Eye Press Chapbook Contest in 2010, and Obscura: The Daguerreotype Series, released by Finishing Line Press in 2007. Gard is currently assistant professor of writing at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. She holds a B.A. in English from Grinnell College and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota. She was a Fullbright Graduate Fellow in Vladivostok, Russia. She has received support for her writing from the Barbara Demming Memorial Fund and Arrowhead Regional Arts Council. Julie enjoys living in an “atmospheric” old house, despite some of the challenges that go with it, and loves having a backyard full of berries each year. She and her partner, the poet Michelle Matthees, and their daughter live a block away from Lake Superior in Duluth.
An Excerpt from Home Studies:
CONCEPTION
My child was conceived in Vladivostok while I read “The
Idiot,” highlighting avidly, in a library six thousand miles
away. She stole winter squash, eating it raw, while I
cooked mine with raisins, butter, nutmeg, sea salt, olive
oil, and wine. I missed her soft forehead all those years she
scavenged acorns while I was in graduate school; all those
years she hid where she could while I studied fiction.
Reviews:
“Home Studies is filled with insight and revelation. A wonderful first book!”—Louis Jenkins, author of Tin Flag: New and Selected Prose Poems
“From beginning to end, Julie Gard’s new collection trades in empathy. . . [It is] a series of fifty-nine linked prose poems, or snapshots, that delineate the everyday. . . We might go so far as to call this a post-Adrienne Rich collection, less a call to arms than an invitation to climb into the quotidian trenches and live for a while.”—Lance Larsen, author of Genius Loci and Utah Poet Laureate
“Julie Gard’s poetry evokes a weaver’s hands interlacing tangibles and physical place with the spirituality of time and space. Objects, people and settings line up in a series of linked and lyrical practicalities that shift and realign to reveal an intrinsic tenderness, in every sense of the word, in their relationships.”—Linda LeGarde Grover, The Road Back to Sweetgrass
Watch:
SELCO librarian Rachel Gray reviews Home Studies by Julie Gard.
The evening features a Preface Reception with complimentary passed wine and cash bar, author meet-and-greet, book sales and signing; the Awards Ceremony with live music, celebrity presenters, artisan cheese plates and breads, complimentary wine and lemonade, with emcee Stephanie Curtis of MPR; and the Epilogue After-Party with complimentary champagne, sumptuous desserts, and additional live music. Tickets now on sale, or click here for more information.
Today’s winner: Michelle Appell. (We’ll be in touch via email, and arrange getting the book to you!)
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