Rusty Morrison

Rusty Morrison is an American poet and publisher. She received a BA in English from Mills College in Oakland, California, an MFA in Creative Writing from Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California, and an MA in Education from California [State University, San Francisco]. She has taught in the MFA program at the University of San Francisco and was Poet in Residence at Saint Mary’s College in 2009. She has also served as a visiting poet at a number of colleges and universities, including the University of Redlands, the University of Arizona, Boise State University, Marylhurst University, and Millikin University. In 2001, Morrison and her husband, Ken Keegan, founded Omnidawn Publishing in Richmond, California, and continue to work as co-publishers. She contracted Hepatitis C in her twenties but, like most people diagnosed with this disease, did not experience symptoms for several years. Since then, a focus on issues relating to disability has developed as an area of interest in her writing.

Honors and awards

Each year links to its corresponding " in poetry" article:

2022: Adelle Foley Award from PEN Oakland
2012: Fellowship Award for a four-week Residency at the Vermont Studio Center
2010: Dorset Prize, Tupelo Press, selected by Jane Hirshfield, for After Urgency
2009: Poet in Residence, MFA in Creative Writing Program, Saint Mary’s College, Spring 2009
2009: George Bogin Memorial Award, Poetry Society of America, selected by John Yau
2009: Northern California Book Award for Poetry
2008: James Laughlin Award, Academy of American Poets, selected by Rae Armantrout, Claudia Rankine, and Bruce Smith
2007: Sawtooth Poetry Prize, Ahsahta Press, Boise State University, Idaho, selected by Peter Gizzi
2007: Alice Di Castagnola Memorial Award, Poetry Society of America, selected by Susan Howe
2006: Cecil Hemley Memorial Award, Poetry Society of America, selected by Cal Bedient
2004: Colorado Prize for Poetry, The Center for Literary Publishing, Colorado State University, selected by Forrest Gander
2003: Robert H. Winner Award, Poetry Society of America, selected by Ron Padgett
2002: Lori & Deke Hunter Fellowship, Djerassi Resident Artists Program

Published works

Full-length poetry collections

Each year links to its corresponding " in poetry" article:

2014:
2012:
2011:
2008:
2004:

Chapbook collections

2011:

Periodicals and anthologies

Morrison's work has been included in an anthology for the literary study of disability, titled Beauty is a Verb. Morrison’s poems have also appeared in literary journals and magazines including American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Chicago Review, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, Lana Turner, New American Writing, Pleiades, Verse, and VOLT. Her critical writings and creative nonfictions have been published in journals including Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, Poetry Flash, Verse, and in the anthology One Word: Contemporary Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe.