April Ossmann

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April Ossmann
Born
Santa Barbara, California
NationalityAmerican
Alma materDartmouth College, 1992 B.A.
Vermont College of Fine Arts, M.F.A.
OccupationPoet, teacher and editor

April Ossmann is an American poet, teacher, and editor. She is author of Event Boundaries (Four Way Books, 2017) and Anxious Music (Four Way Books, 2007), and has had her poems published in many literary journals including Harvard Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Puerto del Sol, Seneca Review, Passages North, Mid-American Review,[1] and Colorado Review, and in anthologies including From the Fishouse (Persea Books, 2009),[2] and Contemporary Poetry of New England (Middlebury College Press, 2002). Her awards include a 2000 Prairie Schooner Reader's Choice Award.[3]

Early[]

Ossmann was born in Santa Barbara, California and raised there and in Richmond and Vacaville, California.[4] She moved to Vermont in 1985, and worked her way through college as a waitress, receiving her A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1992, then earned her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Career[]

Ossmann worked as an assistant, and then associate, editor for the University Press of New England for over three years.

Alice James Books[]

Ossmann was executive director of Alice James Books from 2000 to 2008, presiding over a period of growth that, according to Poets & Writers, saw the press budget more than double in size,[5] and saw the publication of the best-selling Here, Bullet, by Brian Turner, which garnered major media attention.[6][7][8][9] According to Publishers Weekly, which interviewed Ossmann on the occasion of Alice James Books’ thirtieth anniversary, "the press received a three-year, $250,000 stabilization grant from an anonymous donor...With the grant, the press added two full-time staffers, upgraded its equipment, and launched a website with secure online ordering. The press also signed with a trade distributor for the first time, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution."[10]

According to Valley News (West Lebanon, NH) reporter Kristen Fountain, “It was an all-consuming, life-changing position, during which she stabilized the company's financial structure, increased its output and helped push its books into the national press.”[11]

Teaching[]

Ossmann has taught literature and creative writing at the University of Maine at Farmington and at Lebanon College,[12] and has performed at Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing residencies and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference[13] as a visiting publisher. She serves as publisher, editor, and writing consultant while teaching poetry workshops at The Writer's Center in White River Junction, Vermont.

Reception[]

Publishers Weekly, in reviewing Anxious Music, wrote that Ossmann's voice is "remarkable for its confidence and fierceness."[14] Event Boundaries was a finalist for the 2018 Vermont Book Award,[15] and Ossmann received a 2013 Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant for the manuscript-in-progress.[16][17] In its review of the book, Library Journal wrote, “The poems are beautiful and subtly witty, complicated and deceptively honest.”[18]

Personal[]

Ossmann currently lives and works in Post Mills, Vermont.[19]

References[]

  1. ^ Mid-American Review | Volume XVIII, No. 2 | Spring 1998 | TOC Archived September 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Persea Books Website > “From the Fishouse’’ Book Page
  3. ^ University of Nebraska – Lincoln Website | News Releases | 02/13/01 Archived June 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Poets & Writers Directory, April Ossmann Listing
  5. ^ Poets & Writers | March 1, 2009 | Q & A: April Ossmann’s Alice James Fix by Kevin Larimer
  6. ^ Alice James Books | Brian Turner’s Author Page Archived 2009-02-10 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Online NewsHour | Poetry Series | Poet Profile | Brian Turner | PBS
  8. ^ The New Yorker | The Talk of the Town | Ink: War Poet | by Dana Goodyear, 11-14-05
  9. ^ McClatchy News – Washington Bureau | Veteran Turns War Poet | By Michael Doyle | November 18, 2005
  10. ^ Interview with Ossmann by Publishers Weekly | Alice James Books at 30 | by Judith Rosen | 05/19/2003
  11. ^ Profile: Valley News | Close-up: A Poet Makes Her Home in the Land of Robert Frost | By Kristen Fountain | Friday, May 22, 2009 Archived June 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Poets & Writers | Directory of Writers | April Ossmann
  13. ^ Middlebury College Website | Academics | Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference | Faculty | 2005 faculty Archived July 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Publishers Weekly | 11/19/2007 | Review of Anxious Music by April Ossmann
  15. ^ Vermont College of Fine Arts | Vermont Book Award Finalists and Winners
  16. ^ “Valley News” | Book Notes: Post Mills Poet and Editor Wins Grant | Friday, November 3, 2012
  17. ^ Vermont Arts Council blog | March 30, 2017 | “Reaching for Mastery” Posted by Susan McDowell
  18. ^ Library Journal | 04/01/2017 | Event Boundaries Reviewed by Karla Huston
  19. ^ Valley News | Close-up: A Poet Makes Her Home in the Land of Robert Frost | By Kristen Fountain | Friday, May 22, 2009 Archived June 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

Sources[]

External links[]

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