Diane Raptosh

Diane Raptosh is an American poet and college professor who in 2013 became the first poet laureate for Boise, Idaho.

Born in Idaho, Raptosh grew up in Nampa, Idaho and attended Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho. She attended the The College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho and then received a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Michigan.^[1] After graduating from Michigan, Raptosh taught in Chicago, Seattle, and Laramie, Wyoming. In 1990, she was hired to teach at the College of Idaho.^[2]

Raptosh is the recipient of three fellowships in literature from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and holds the Eyck-Berringer Endowed Chair in English at The College of Idaho. She teaches literature and creative writing, and directs the criminal justice/prison studies program. Raptosh is to serve as the Idaho Writer-in-Residence from 2013 through 2016.

In 2013, the city of Boisie named Raptosh as its first poet laureate in recognition of its flourishing literary community.

Raptosh is the author of three earlier books of poems: Just West of Now (Guernica 1992), Labor Songs (Guernica 1999), and Parents from a Different Alphabet (Guernica 2008). She has published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Terrain.org, Michigan Quarterly Review and OccuPoetry.^[3] Her most recent book of poems, American Amnesiac (Etruscan Press), was nominated for the 2013 National Book Award. A book-length dramatic monologue, American Amnesiac investigates the complexities of being American in an age of corruption, corporations, and global conflict.

Raptosh conducts writing workshops, gives readings, and lectures on poetry in university auditoriums, maximum security prisons, school buses, and riverbanks. Raptosh frequently takes her students on field trips to a local jail and prison.^[4]

Raptosh lives in Boise, Idaho, with her family.

Honors and Awards

• 2013 American Amnesiac is long listed for the National Book Award.
• 2013–2016 Named Idaho Writer-in-Residence
• 2013 Named Boise Poet Laureate
• 2007 Fellowship in Literature, Idaho Commission on the Arts
• 2001 Fellowship in Literature, Idaho Commission on the Arts
• 1991 Fellowship in Literature, Idaho Commission on the Arts

Full Length Poetry Collections

• American Amnesiac. Etruscan Press. 2013. ISBN 978-0-9839346-6-0
• Parents From a Different Alphabet. 2008. Guernica Editions. ISBN 978-1550712858
• Labor Songs. 1999. Guernica Editions. ISBN 978-1550710595
• Just West of Now. 1992. Guernica Editions. ISBN 978-0920717714

Anthology Publications

• Woven on the Wind: Woman Write About Friendship in the Sagebrush West (ISBN 978-0395977088)
• Writing With An Accent: Contemporary Italian American Women Authors (ISBN 978-0312294694)
• Families: The Frontline of Pluralism (ISBN 978-0979655234)
• Circle of Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Western Women Writers (ISBN 978-0806133676)
• The North American Italian Renaissance (Essay Series 43) (ISBN 978-1550711073)

References

1. ↑ Diane Raptosh | Friday, Nov. 15 | Culture | Boise Weekly
2. ↑ Oland, Diana (May 18, 2013). "Boise's poet laureate Diane Raptosh puts the city into poetic perspectiv". Idaho Statesman. Retrieved 23 February 2014. 
3. ↑ Linville, Allison (January 7, 2014). "INTERVIEWS: Diane Raptosh". Cutbank. 
4. ↑ Carlson, Brad (January 26, 2014). "Writer Diane Raptosh reaches out". Idaho Press Tribune. Retrieved 23 February 2014.