Clemson University English professor receives Isabella Gardner Poetry Award

Published: March 26, 2012

By Evan Lybrand

CLEMSON — Clemson University creative writing professor Jillian Weise has received the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award for her new collection, “The Book of Goodbyes,” which will be published by BOA Editions Ltd. in fall 2013. The award is given biennially to a poet with a new book of exceptional merit.

Weise is a Fulbright Fellow and the author of “The Amputee’s Guide to Sex” and “The Colony.” Her poem “Incision” was selected for Poetry Everywhere, a short film series produced by PBS and the Poetry Foundation. Her work has appeared in several literary magazines and newspapers such as A Public Space, The Atlantic, The New York Times and Tin House.

Weise studied at Florida State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Cincinnati. She traveled to Argentina on a Fulbright Fellowship and spent two years as a Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass. In addition to teaching poetry at Clemson, she has set up many creative writing events on campus and is co-director of the Clemson Literary Festival.

The Isabella Gardner award carries an honorarium of $1,000 and is sponsored by the Gardner Charitable Trust. Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Michael Blumenthal are notable poets and former recipients who assisted in the judging.

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