Lucille Lang Day’s interests as a writer include poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and children’s literature. She is the author of eleven poetry collections and chapbooks, including Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place, Becoming an Ancestor, and Dreaming of Sunflowers: Museum Poems; two children’s books, Chain Letter and The Rainbow Zoo; and a memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story, which received a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction. Her poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in such magazines and anthologies as Atlanta Review, The Cincinnati Review, The Hudson Review, Mother Songs (Norton), and California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Heyday). She started publishing her work in 1973 and for many years combined her career in creative writing with a simultaneous one in science writing and science education. The founder and publisher of a small press, Scarlet Tanager Books (www.scarlettanager.com), she has also served as a member of the Editorial Board of the international online literary magazine Levure Litteraire. She coedited Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California with Ruth Nolan. Of Wampanoag, British, and Swiss/German descent, she is also a coeditor of Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California. She lives with her husband, writer Richard Michael Levine, in Oakland, California.

Website: https://lucillelangday.com

Twitter Username: @LucilleLDay

Publications

• Poetry and Science: Writing Our Way to Discovery , Scarlet Tanager Books (2021)
• Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place , Blue Light Press (November 2020)
• Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California , Scarlet Tanager Books (October 2018)
• The Rainbow Zoo: A Children's Book , Scarlet Tanager Books (November 2016)
• Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California , Scarlet Tanager Books (2016)
• Becoming an Ancestor: Poems , Cervena Barva Press (2015)
• Dreaming of Sunflowers: Museum Poems , Blue Light Press (2015)
• Married at Fourteen: A True Story , Heyday (2012)
• The Curvature of Blue: Poems , Cervena Barva Press (2009)
• God of the Jellyfish: Poems , Cervena Barva Press (2007)
• The Book of Answers: Poems , Finishing Line Press (2006)
• Chain Letter: A Children's Book , Heyday (2005)
• Infinities: Poems , Cedar Hill Publications (2002)
• Lucille Lang Day: Greatest Hits, 1975-2000 , Pudding House Publications (2001)
• Wild One: Poems , Scarlet Tanager Books (2000)
• Fire in the Garden: Poems , Mother's Hen (1997)
• Self-Portrait with Hand Microscope: Poems , Berkeley Poets' Workshop and Press (1982)

Awards

• Finalist, Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry(2019)
• PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award(2017)
• Blue Light Poetry Prize(2014)
• PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award(2013)
• Finalist, Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction(2013)
• Notable Essay Citation in Best American Essays(2010)
• Willow Review Award for Creative Nonfiction(2009)
• Grand Prize, Dancing Poetry Contest of Artists Embassy International(2008)
• First Prize, Poetry Contest of the Gulf Coast Ethnic and Heritage Jazz Festival(2007)
• First Prize, Janice Farrell Poetry Prize, Soul-Making Literary Competition(2007)
• Appalachia Poetry Prize(1996)
• Joseph Henry Jackson Award in Literature(1982)

Employment

• Freelance Writer at Self-employed (1979 - )
• Staff/Visiting Scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (2010 - 2011)
• Director at Hall of Health, Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland (1992 - 2009)
• Science Writer and Program Administrator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1986 - 1992)
• Founder and Publisher at Scarlet Tanager Books (January 1999 - )

Degrees

• Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University (May 2004)
• Master of Arts in English: Creative Writing from San Francisco State University (May 1999)
• Doctoral Degree in Science and Mathematics Education from University of California, Berkeley (December 1979)
• Master of Arts in Zoology from University of California, Berkeley (December 1973)
• Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from University of California, Berkeley (June 1971)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Children's literature , Poetry