Rebecca Gayle Howell

Rebecca Gayle Howell (born August 10, 1975 Lexington, Kentucky)^[1] is an American poet, translator,^[2] and documentarian. Her poetry collection Render / An Apocalypse was selected by Nick Flynn for the Cleveland State University Poetry Center First Book Prize in 2012.^[3]

Education and Career

Howell was born in Lexington, Kentucky on August 10, 1975 to Pauline Neace Howell and James Farris Howell. She earned her B.A. and her M.A. at the University of Kentucky, her M.F.A. at Drew University, and her Ph.D. at Texas Tech University. Howell also apprenticed under the Southern experimental art photographer and writer James Baker Hall, as well as the feminist poet and critic Alicia Ostriker. Among her awards is a 2014 Pushcart Prize^[4] and two poetry fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center.

Native to Kentucky, Howell served as director of the Women Writers Conference and is an activist against mountaintop removal coal mining. As of 2013, Howell lives in Lubbock, Texas.^[5]

In 2014, she joined the staff of The Oxford American as Poetry Editor.^[6]

Works

Howell’s first book of poetry, Render / An Apocalypse, was chosen by Nick Flynn for the 2012 Cleveland State University First Book Prize. In reviewing Render, the LA Times wrote, “There’s an unexpected intimacy... a sense of the physicality of life, of death and of endurance, which in the end is all we have. Howell gets at all of this with precision, pitiless but not unfeeling, knee-deep, waist-deep in the world.”.^[7] Render was a finalist for ForeWord Review's Poetry Book of the Year in 2013.^[8]

Howell’s translation of Amal al-Jubouri’s Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation was selected to inaugurate the Alice James Books Translation Series in 2011^[9] and was chosen as a Best Book of Poetry in 2011 by Library Journal.^[10]

Her photographs are collected in This is Home Now: Kentucky’s Holocaust Survivors Speak and Plundering Appalachia: The Tragedy of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining.

Awards

• 2014 Pushcart Prize. XXXIX. Best of the Small Presses. Edited by Bill Henderson.^[11]
• 2014 Poetry Fellow, 2nd year. Fine Arts Work Center. Provincetown, MA.
• 2013 Finalist, Poetry Book of the Year. ForeWord Review. For Render / An Apocalypse. CSU Poetry Center.^[12]
• 2012 Cleveland State University Poetry Center First Book Prize. For Render /An Apocalypse.^[13]
• 2012 Finalist, Best Translated Book Award. Three Percent. For Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation. Alice James Books.^[14]
• 2011 Best Book of Poetry. Library Journal. For Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation. Alice James Books.
• 2010 Poetry Fellow. Fine Arts Work Center. Provincetown, MA.

Collections

• Render / An Apocalypse, poems by Rebecca Gayle Howell. (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2013).
• Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation, poems by Amal al-Jubouri and translated by Rebecca Gayle Howell with Husam Qaisi. (Alice James Books, 2011).
• Plundering Appalachia: The Tragedy of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining. Edited by Tom Butler and George Wuerthner. (Earth Aware, 2009).
• This is Home Now: Kentucky’s Holocaust Survivors Speak, interviews by Arwen Donahue and photographs by Rebecca Gayle Howell. (University Press of Kentucky, 2009).

References

^{[15] [16] [17]}

• The Courier-Journal > review of Render / An Apocalypse
• Cleveland State University Poetry Center > First Book Prize
• Asymptote > review of Hagar
• Three Percent’s Best Translated Book Award > review of Hagar
• Library Journal > review of Hagar

External links

• Smith College Poetry Center > Rebecca Gayle Howell bio
• Interview: Out of Our Minds with J.P. Dancing Bear.
• Audio: “How to Be a Pig.” The Bluecast.
• Interviewer: M. Lynx Qauley. Arabic Literature (in English). January 31.
• Interviewer: Rafael FJ Alvarado. Translated By. World Wide Word Radio Network.
• [www.rebeccagaylehowell.com/ Howell’s official website]
• Fine Arts Work Center > Rebecca Gayle Howell bio