photo by Lisa Schonburg
Dr. Annette Allen was instrumental in establishing the Humanities PhD Program at the University of Louisville in 2002 and also founded and coordinated the Beijing Humanities doctoral program. She was a beloved mentor who advised numerous graduate creative theses and dissertations in many fields, most notably in creative writing.
She published widely in poetry anthologies and journals and authored three books of poetry: Country of Light (Mount Olive College Press, 1996), which received the Lee Davenport Witte Award; What Vanishes (Arable Press, 2006), which was awarded the Dr. Guy Award by the Winston-Salem Arts Council; and The Cruel Radiance of What Is (Negative Capability Press, 2019). A MacDowell Colony Fellow, Annette Allen was the recipient of three statewide poetry awards and a Poetry Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council for 2018-19. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and other honors include an International Residency in Germany awarded by the Virginia Center for the Arts and two NEH summer fellowships.
Annette Allen often wrote poems that were a response to the natural world or to the inspiration she found in the intellectual thought or artistic achievement of others. Perhaps some phrase or thought in her poems may inspire new creative energy in others!
Entries of all sorts are encouraged! All styles are welcome—there is no need to imitate Annette's poems.
Selected Poems from The Cruel Radiance of What Is:
