Naming Rites

Gary Boelhower’s second major collection includes sixty-five poems that explore the ways we are named and branded with multiple identities, a clay vessel molded and imprinted from the inside and the outside by those who know us or think they do; by wounds, worries, stones, and nicknames; by place and absence; by teachers and traitors.

Gary Boelhower has taught ethics, leadership, and spirituality at the undergraduate and graduate levels for thirty years. He is the author of Marrow, Muscle, Flight: Poems, which won the Midwest Book Award for poetry.

Gary Boelhower’s poetry has been published in anthologies: Amethyst and Agate: Poems of Lake Superior, Holy Cow! Press (2015), The Heart of All That Is, Holy Cow! Press (2013), The Cancer Poetry Project 2, Tasora Books (2013) Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude, Holy Cow! Press (2009), Trail Guide to the Northland Experience in Prints and Poetry, Calyx Press Duluth (2008), and County lines: 87 Minnesota Counties 130 Minnesota Poets, Loonfeather Press (2008) and in journals and magazines: America, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra Magazine, The Freshwater Review, Lake Superior Magazine, New Millenium Writings, Out of Words, Prove, Shavings, and Willow Review. His 2011 collection of poems, Marrow, Muscle, Flight (Wildwood River Press) won the Midwest Book Award. He was awarded the Foley Prize in poetry from America magazine in 2012 and a career development grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council in 2010.

His recent nonfiction books include Choose Wisely: Practical Insights from Spiritual Traditions, Paulist Press (2013) and Mountain 10: Climbing the Labyrinth Within, (co-authored with Joe Miguez and Tricia Pearce) Mountain Ten Resources (2013). Boelhower teaches at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn. in ethics, spirituality, and leadership. He has held leadership positions in higher education, including chair of humanities, dean of life-long learning, dean of graduate studies and vice president for academic affairs. He has created non-profit community organizations for feeding the hungry and for adult literacy. He has consulted with and provided training for a broad range of organizations on dialogue, authentic leadership, values and vision, the respectful workplace, and wise decision-making.