Body & Field

The poems in Terry Blackhawk's first collection of poetry enable the reader to enter a realm that is prelinguistic, where self dissolves and sight and sound, nature and identity, intermingle. The paradox inherent in these poems is that the poet's precise use of language, of imagery, of metaphor expresses a physical, sensual celebration of life and loss. Blackhawk frequently makes use of myth to show how the animal within us moves in and with the natural world.

Terry Blackhawk earned a B.A. from Antioch College and taught English and creative writing in Detroit public schools for many years. In 1995, she founded InsideOut, a literary arts project for Detroit students. She is the author of two full-length collections of poems-- Body & Field (1999); Escape Artist (2003), winner of the 2002 John Ciardi Poetry Prize; and a chapbook, Trio: Voices from the Myths (1998). Her poems have appeared or will be published soon in numerous journals. Among her awards for poetry are the 1990 Foley Poetry Award; a Distinguished Merit Award from Poetry Atlanta; the John Ciardi Prize; finalist in the 1997 and 1999 Marlboro Review Poetry Prizes; and nominations for the Pushcart XXV and Pushcart XXVI Prizes. In 1992-93, she received an NEH Teacher- Scholar Sabbatical Award to study Emily Dickinson and is included in An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia (1998). In September, 2000, she was featured as a Poet Among Us at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Waterloo, New Jersey. She has also assisted in judging the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award for the last several years. Terry Blackhawk lives in Detroit, where she is poet-in-residence and director of InsideOut.