Renée Ashley is the author of five volumes of poetry (Salt, The Various Reasons of Light, The Revisionist’s Dream, Basic Heart, and  Because I Am the Shore I Want to Be the Sea, as well as two chapbooks, The Museum of Lost Wings  and The Verbs of Desiring, and a novel, Someplace Like This). She has served as poetry editor of The Literary Review and is currently an editor at large. She is on the faculty of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s two low-residency graduate programs, the MFA in Creative Writing and the MA in Creative Writing and Literature for Educators. For five years before coming to FDU, she served as  the Assistant Poetry Coordinator for the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Her awards include the Brittingham Prize in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin Press, the X. J. Kennedy Award in Poetry from Texas Review Press, a Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence, the Charles Angoff Award, an American Literary Review Poetry Prize, the Chelsea Poetry Award, The Robert Watson Literary Prize in Poetry from Greensboro Review, the Robert H. Winner Award and the Ruth Lake Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the Subito Book Award from Subito Press, University of Colorado--Boulder. She has received fellowships in both poetry and prose from New Jersey State Council on the Arts and a fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment of the Arts. The artist Larry Kirkland has included a portion of her poem "First Book of the Moon" in a permanent installation in Penn Station Terminal in Manhattan. Her sixth volume of poems, The View from the Body, will be published by Black Lawrence Press early in 2016.

Website: http://reneeashley.com

Publications

• Salt , University of Wisconsin Press (October 1991)
• The Various Reasons of Light , Avocet Press Inc (July 1998)
• The Revisionist's Dream , Avocet Press Inc (September 2001)
• Someplace Like This, a novel , Permanent Press (July 2003)
• The Museum of Lost Wings , Hill-Stead Museum (Chapbook Award) (2006)
• Basic Heart , Texas Review Press (February 2009)
• The Verbs of Desiring , New American Press (Chapbook Award) (January 2010)
• Because I Am the Shore I Want to Be the Sea , Subito Press (October 15, 2013)
• Basic Heart , Black Lawrence Press

Awards

• Cecil Hackney Literary Award(1985)
• Fellowship in Prose, New Jersey State Council on the Arts(1985)
• Washington Prize in Poetry(1986)
• Writer-in-Residence, Rockland Center for the Arts(1987)
• Ruth Lake Memorial Award, Poetry Society of America(1987)
• Eve of St. Agnes Award, Negative Capability(1988)
• Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation(1989)
• Fellowship in Poetry, New Jersey State Council on the Arts(1989)
• Open Voice Award: Poetry, Writers Voice, West Side Y, NY(1989)
• Robert H. Winner Award, Poetry Society of America(1989)
• Fellow, Yaddo/G.R. Dodge Foundation Fellowship(1990)
• Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence for Emerging Writers(1990)
• Judith's Room, Emerging Talent Competition(1990)
• Brittingham Prize in Poetry, University of Wisconsin Press(1991)
• Fourth Annual Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence(1992)
• Fellow, MacDowell Colony(1993)
• Fellow, MacDowell Colony(1994)
• Fellowship in Poetry, New Jersey State Council on the Arts(1994)
• Chelsea Award for Poetry(1996)
• American Literary Review Poetry Prize(1997)
• Fellowship in Poetry, National Endowment for the Arts(1997)
• Charles Angoff Award, The Literary Review(1998)
• Pushcart Prixe, Vol. XXIV(1999)
• Fellowship in Poetry, New Jersey State Council on the Arts(2003)
• Hill-Stead Museum Sunken Garden Poetry Competition(2006)
• Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest(2006)
• Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center(2006)
• X.J. Kennedy Award in Poetry, Texas Review Press(2008)
• New American Press Chapbook Competition(2009)
• The Robert Watson Literary Prize in Poetry, Greensboro Review(2009)
• Subito Book Award(2013)

Employment

• Adjunct at Communications Div., Ramapo College (June 1989 - December 1993)
• Adjunct at English Dept., William Paterson University (September 1996 - June 1997)
• Assistant Poetry Coordinator at Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation (February 1997 - December 2002)
• Distinguished Poet-in-Residence at Wichita State University (2005 - )
• Poetry Editor at The Literary Review (August 2007 - January 2014)
• Core Faculty at MFA in Creative Writing, Fairleigh Dickinson University (2001 - )
• Core Faculty at MA in Creative Writing and Literature for Educators, Fairleigh Dickinson University (June 2010 - )
• Contributing Editor at The Literary Review (February 2014 - August 2014)
• Editor at Large at The Literary Review (August 2014 - )

Degrees

• Bachelor of Arts in English, French, Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University (June 1979)
• Master of Arts in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University (June 1981)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Poetry