Ruth Ellen Kocher is the author of seven books, 3rd Voice (Tupelo 2016), Ending in Planes, winner of the Noemi Press Book Prize (Noemi, 2014), Goodbye Lyric: The Gigans and Selected Poems (Sheep Meadow Press, 2014), domina Un/blued, winner of the PEN Open Book Award (Tupelo Press, 2013), One Girl Babylon (New Issues Press, 2003), and When the Moon Knows You’re Wandering, Winner of the Green Rose Prize in Poetry,  (New Issues Press, 2002), and Desdemona’s Fire, winner of the Naomi Long Madget Award for African American Poets (Lotus Press, 1999). Her poems have been translated into Persian in the Iranian literary magazine She’r and have appeared or are forthcoming in various anthologies including, Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poets, Black Nature, From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great, An Anthology for Creative Writers: The Garden of Forking Paths, IOU: New Writing On Money, New Bones: Contemporary Black Writing in America. She has been granted poetry fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation and Yaddo. She is Professor of English at the University of Colorado where she teaches Poetry, Poetics, and Literature. She is a Contributing Editor at Poets & Writers Magazine.

Website: www.ruthellenkocher.com

Twitter Username: @ruthellenkocher

Publications

• domina Un/blued , Tupelo Press (April 2013)
• One Girl Babylon , New Issues Poetry and Prose (December 2003)
• When the Moon Knows You're Wandering , New Issues Poetry and Prose (April 2001)
• Desdemona's Fire , Lotus Press (April 1999)
• Goodbye Lyric: The Gigans and Lovely Gun , The Sheep Meadow Press (February 4, 2014)
• Ending in Planes , Noemi Press (October 2014)

Awards

• Noemi Book Prize(2013)
• Dorset Prize(2010)
• Green Rose Prize(2002)
• Naomi Long Madgett Award(1999)
• PEN Open Book Award(2014)

Employment

• Professor at University of Colorado - Boulder (August 2006 - )
• Associate Professor at University of Missouri - St. Louis (September 2002 - May 2007)
• Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville (August 2000 - May 2002)
• Assistant Professor at Missouri Western State College (August 1999 - May 2000)

Degrees

• Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Poetics from Penn State University (December 1990)
• Master of Fine Arts in Poetry and Poetics from Arizona State University (April 1994)
• Doctoral Degree in American Modernism; Rhetorical Theory and Lit Crit from Arizona State University (April 1999)

Genres of Interest

Creative nonfiction, Poetry