Carmen Germain

Holding degrees in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of British Columbia, Carmen Germain is the author of the chapbook Living Room, Earth (Pathwise Press), the collection These Things I Will Take with Me (Cherry Grove), and the collection The Old Refusals (MoonPath Press). Cider Press Review nominated her work for Best of the Web in 2016; she has been the recipient of a Washington Community Colleges Humanities Association award for poetry. The anthologies In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (University of Iowa Press) and New Poets of the American West (Many Voices Press) as well as the journals Flyway, The Madison Review, Cold Mountain Review, Poet Lore, and Natural Bridge, among others, have published her poems. Her new collection, Life Drawing, is forthcoming from MoonPath Press in 2022.

During her time as a visiting artist/scholar at the American Academy in Rome, she researched the work of post-war novelist Elsa Morante; some of the poems in the Old Refusals had their genesis in Italy. Germain's work is influenced by Italian/American culture, especially the Little Italy that was once alive in the South End of Albany, New York, as well as the Upper Midwest and the wilderness of northern British Columbia. Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico, has a presence in her work. In addition to learning from poetry, she is also a visual artist.