Nicole Beer recipient of the Colorado Book Award in Poetry for her book The Diminishing House

In Beer's book, birds are disemboweled, a father is mourned, and a basement fills with snakes.  This first book of resonant lyric poetry meditates on such subjects as animals, art, and anatomy and tranforms the familiar and mundane into something strangely mythic. Beer explores the exhilaration and frustration of living in a sensuous, unstable world filled with grief and desire.

"While much of the book centers around the death of my father, "Beer explains, "it's also a product of the talented literary teachers, mentors, and peers I've been surrounded by as the poems were written, and the great fortune I've had to benefit from their advice, guidance, and example."

Published in 2010 by Carnegie Mellon University Press, The Diminishing House is Beer's first published volume.

Beer is the third Colorado Book Award recipient among CU Denver English Department creative writing faculty. Teague Bohlen won in 2006 for his novel The Pull of the Earth.

Beer also co-edits the Copper Nickel, a national literary journal published by CU Denver.

Deans Notes RSS | 75 views | July 21, 2011 issue

Categories: | CLAS Faculty | Department of English | Archive: CLAS Spotlight