Lee Upton


Lee Upton is an American poet, fiction writer, and literary critic. She earned a BA in journalism at Michigan State University, a master of fine arts (MFA) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Program for Poets & Writers, and a PhD in English literature at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Life

She is the author of several books of poetry, fiction, and literary criticism, including The Muse of Abandonment, Civilian Histories, Undid in the Land of Undone, and The Guide to the Flying Island. She is a former professor of English and writer in residence at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. In 1990, Upton collaborated with artist Ed Kerns and fellow poet Charles Molesworth on an exhibition of poetry and images at the Williams Center in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the New Republic, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, and DoubleTake.

Awards

Poetry collections

The Day Every Day Is. Ardmore, PA: Saturnalia Books, 2023. Recipient of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize.Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles. Cleveland: Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2015. Winner of the Open Book Award.Undid in the Land of Undone. Kalamazoo: New Issues Press, 2007. Civilian Histories. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. Approximate Darling. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996. No Mercy. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989. Winner of the National Poetry Series. Winner of the 1988 National Poetry Series.The Invention of Kindness. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1984.
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Novels

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Novellas

Short fiction collections

Nonfiction

Libretto

The Masque of Edgar Allan Poe, composer Kirk O’Riordan, librettist Lee Upton. Performed by University of Delaware Opera Theatre at University of Delaware on November 11, 2016 and University of Delaware Opera Theater at Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette College on November 13, 2016.

Collaborative Art Books

Tying & Untying. Lee Upton and Jim Toia. Clinton, NJ: Lucia Press, 2012.The Maid at the Pond. Curlee Holton and Lee Upton. Experimental Printmaking Institute, 2006.Omniscient Love. Curlee Holton and Lee Upton. Experimental Printmaking Institute, 2005.