Paula J. Lambert

A native of Massachusetts, Paula J. Lambert attended Butera School of Art in Boston, earning a certificate in sign painting in 1982, a trade she practiced for the next ten years. She also worked briefly as an ice cream maker in Indiana, a carnie in Florida, and an obituary writer in Alabama before finally moving on to earn her BA and MA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Later, with an MFA from Bowling Green State University, she taught composition and creative writing at the college level for a total of twenty years in Alabama, Mississippi, and Ohio. Now living in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband Dr. Michael Perkins, a philosopher and technologist, Lambert has authored several collections of poetry including The Ghost of Every Feathered Thing (FutureCycle 2022), How to See the World (Bottom Dog 2020), and The Sudden Seduction of Gravity (Full/Crescent 2012). The focus of much of her recent work has been the anatomy of birds: by digging deep into their bones, beaks, and feathers, she has found her way to issues both deeply personal and broadly political. Awarded the PEN America / L'Engle-Rahman Prize for Mentorship, Lambert's work has been supported by the Ohio Arts Council and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. She has twice been in residence at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. An accomplished visual artist who has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, she is especially interested in mixed media collage and book arts. She owns Full/Crescent Press, a small publisher of poetry books and broadsides specializing in fine quality, hand-sewn chapbooks. Through the press, she has founded and supported numerous public readings and festivals that support the intersection of poetry and science.