About
Erin Belieu’s poetry collection, Come-Hither Honeycomb, was published in February 2021.
Belieu's other poetry collections are Infanta, winner of the National Poetry Series, and chosen one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, National Book Critics Circle, and Library Journal; One Above & One Below, winner of the Midland Author’s and Ohioana Poetry Prizes; Black Box, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Slant Six, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and was named by the New York Times’s book critic’s one of their 10 Favorite Books of 2014. All of Belieu’s poetry collections are published by Copper Canyon Press.
Belieu has received admiring reviews for her poetry throughout her writing career. Book critic Dwight Garner in the New York Times says “Belieu is a poet who can’t abide pretension,” and “She’s a comedian of the human spirit, in league with poets from Frank O’Hara, to Deborah Garrison, to Tony Hoagland.”
Michael Andor Brodeur in the Boston Globe says, [Belieu’s] is a realism too rarely (and too rarely successfully) employed by poets’s today,” and "her poems, which she calls “baby teeth/ knocked from the present’s mouth,’’ can also make you see stars."
Belieu’s poetry has appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, Poetry, Atlantic Monthly, Slate, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, the Academy of American Poet's Poem a Day, and the American Poetry Review. Her poems have
been selected on multiple appearances in the Best American Poetry anthology series. Her prizes include
the Rona Jaffe Foundation fellowship, and she was recently honored with the Barnes and Noble "Writers For Writers Award, recognizing Belieu’s long career of literary activism, as well as AWP’s George Garrett Prize, honoring her "outstanding literary citizenship” in service to the national writing community.
Belieu also founded the resistance network, Writers Resist, the organization that, in January 2016, hosted more than 100 simultaneous events in different cities worldwide to promote the tenants of democracy, diversity, and freedom of speech.
Belieu has been an educator for over 20 years, teaching workshops and literature courses at Boston University, Washington University, Kenyon College, Ohio University, and Florida State University. She is presently a full professor on the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program faculty. Belieu is also a frequent visiting faculty member for writing programs and conferences throughout the United States and abroad.
Erin Belieu is a well known mentor and editor for emerging poets and offers individual poetry consultations ranging from one time consultations to semester long intensive workshops. If you are interested in working with Erin, please reach out to her through the form on the contact page.
Angry Salad Photo Credit: Keith Kopka