Faculty & Staff : Robin Behn
Robin Behn is Professor of English and teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing. Her books of poetry are Paper Bird (Texas Tech University Press), winner of the Associated Writing Programs Award Series in Poetry; The Red Hour (HarperCollins), and Horizon Note (University of Wisconsin Press), winner of the Brittingham Prize. She is also co-editor of The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach (HarperCollins). A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the state arts councils of Illinois and Alabama, and the New England Review narrative poetry prize, her work appears in the Pushcart Prize anthology, Best American Poetry, and many literary journals. Behn is a graduate of Oberlin College, the University of Missouri-Columbia, and The University of Iowa.
Her essay "In the Music Room" will appear in the forthcoming collection Planet on the Table.
Books authored
Horizon Note (poems). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
The Red Hour (poems). New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
Paper Bird (poems). Lubbock: Texas Tech UP, 1988.
Books edited
The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach. With Chase Twichell. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Articles and Essays
"The Early Days of Her Conversion." Sister to Sister. Ed. Patricia Foster. Anchor Books. New York: Doubleday, 1995. 17-30. Rpt. in The Wasington Post Magazine, December 3, 1995: 30-51.
"A Confusion of Plums: Williams' 'To a Poor Old Woman.'" Occident CII (1988): 208-209.
Poems (in journals)
"Elegy for the Difference Between Reading and Being." American Literary Review XII/2 (Fall 2001): 18–19.
"On Thursday She Began Saying Everything At Once." Spoon River Poetry Review XXVII/1 (Winter/Spring 2002): 17–18.
"Elegy and Request." Spoon River Poetry Review XXVII/1 (Winter/Spring 2002): 17–18.
"Glove." Spoon River Poetry Review XXVII/1 (Winter/Spring 2002): 16.
"Frame." Spoon River Poetry Review XXVII/1 (Winter/Spring 2002): 19–20.
"To Brain on Brain's Last Day." Crab Orchard Review 7/1 (Fall/Winter 2001): 35–36.
"Interlude: Still Still." Crab Orchard Review 7/1 (Fall/Winter 2001): 37–38.
"Postlude." Bellingham Review XXIV/2 (Fall 2001): 133–134.
"Vigil: Dwindle." Bellingham Review XXIV/2 (Fall 2001): 131–132.
"Ballad in Fall." Kenyon Review XXIII.1 (Winter 2001): 65–66.
"Elegy for Lessons." Kenyon Review XXIII.1 (Winter 2001): 66–68.
"Dark Yellow Poem." Ploughshares 26/4 (Winter 2000–01): 35–36.
"Gray Poem." The Cortland Review 12 (August 2000).
"Prelude for Penny Whistle." The Iowa Review 31/2 (Fall 2001): 85–86.
"Thought is Allowed." The Iowa Review 31/2 (Fall 2001): 87–88.
"Slide." Field 32 (Spring 2000): 5–6.
"Double Elegy in Spring." The Southern Review 35.2 (Spring 1999): 202–204.
"Whether or Not There Are Apples." Kenyon Review XXI.2 (Winter 1999): 79–80.
"Still Life." Kenyon Review XXI.1 (Winter 1999): 78–79.
"The Call." Third Coast (Spring 1998): 22-24.
"The Difference Between Writing and Music." Colorado Review XXV (Spring 1998): 4-5.
"Wolf Story." New Letters 63.1 (Fall 1997): 20-22.
"The Other Side." New Letters 63.1 (Fall 1997):18-19.
"On Being Asked My Opinion About an Autopsy." Iowa Review (Spring 1998): 187-188.
"The Scientist." Field 57 (Fall 1997): 107-108.
"The Swim." Field 57 (Fall 1997): 109-110.
"Sylvia's Starlings." Field 57 (Fall 1997): 111-112.
"Five O'Clock," "Windy Popples, Late October." Iowa Review (Spring 1994): 75-76.
"The Bassoonist," "French Horn," "The Saving Grace of Mozart." Iowa Review 22.2 (1992): 41- 48.
"Grackles," "On Giving My Father a Book About Roses." Field 47 (Fall 1992): 78-82.
"Those Unitarian Sundays." The American Voice 26 (Spring 1992): 110-11.
"The One Girl on the Soccer Team," "The Experiment." Crazyhorse (Fall 1992): 30-34.
"The Paperweight." The Spoon River Quarterly XVII.3-4 (Summer/Fall 1992): 51-52.
"Vision Near Ice," "Ten Years After Your Deliberate Drowning." Indiana Review 14.1 (Spring 1991):20-23.
"Five O'Clock in Your Childhood." The American Voice 23 (Summer 1991): 88-90.
"Slow Movement in G." Denver Quarterly 26.1 (Summer 1991): 9-10.
"The House in the Clearing." The Ohio Review (Fall 1991): 38-39.
"Husbandry," "Midwestern Villanelle." The Iowa Review, 20.3 (1990): 33-37.
"The God Hole." Ploughshares, 16.4 (Winter 1990-91): 142-143.
"Aubade." The Missouri Review, XIII.2 (1990) 48-49.
"The Name of God." Agni Review, 31/32 (1990): 182-183.
"The Oboist." New England Review, 13.1 (Fall 1990): 86-87.
"Maybe the Jay." Poets for Life: 76 Poets Respond to AIDS. New York: Crown, 1989. 25-27.
"Etiquette." The Iowa Review, (Summer 1988): 119-20.
"Letter Via Stars." The Iowa Review (Summer 1988): 120-21.
"Recovery." The Iowa Review (Summer 1988): 123.
"Quintet for Flute and Strings." The Iowa Review (Summer 1988): 121-22.
"Fogging the Bees." The Ohio Review (Fall 1988): 82.
"World." Quarry West, 25.118 (Fall 1988): 118.
"Angels." Poetry, CLII (May 1988): 90-91.
"Birch Island." New Letters (Spring 1988): 59.
"Dear Sky." 5 A.M., (Winter 1988): 3.
"In That Year," "The Waders." Denver Quarterly, 22.4 (Spring 1988): 10-15.
"Not East." New Letters (Spring 1988): 58.
"Open Heart." Poetry, CLII (May 1988): 88-89.
"The Angel in Sandusky." Gambit 21 (1987): 9.
"Land's End." Denver Quarterly (Fall 1987): 18.
"Leavetaking in Winter." Denver Quarterly (Fall 1987).
"To the City of San Cristobal de las Cases." Indiana Review 10.3 (Spring 1987): 82-83.
"Vestigial Kisses," "Two Waves." Gambit 21 (1987): 10-11.
"The Earth's a Little Lighter." The Iowa Review 16 (Winter 1986): 6.
"Elegy for the New Year." Farmer's Market 3 (Spring/Summer 1986):43.
"Light on Water." Whetstone 3 (Spring 1986): 56-57.
"Paper Bird." The Iowa Review 16 (Winter 1986): 4-5.
"Poem Against Regret." Whetstone 3 (Spring 1986): 55.
"Winter Poem." Farmer's Market 3.2 (Spring/Summer 1986): 44-45.
"Four Years After Your Deliberate Drowning." Poetry CXLV (March 1985): 337.
"Last Page." Tendril 79 (1985): 19-20.
"Over 102nd Street." Ironwood 13 (Spring 1985): 150-151.
"Whole-Body Count." Ironwood 13 (Spring 1985): 152.
"After Love." Crazyhorse 26 (Spring 1984): 42-43.
"Geographies," "Living with Sister." American Poetry Review 13/14 (July/August 1984): 21.
"Night Sail off Raber." Antioch Review 42 (Summer 1984): 329.
"Off Shore." Catch 16 (Fall 1984): 30-31.
"To Rise So Suddenly." The Georgia Review XXXVIII (Winter 1984): 824.
"Distinguished Flying Cross." Field 29 (Fall 1983): 76.
"The Drowned Among Us." The Missouri Review VII (Fall 1983): 54-55.
"The First Angel." Field 29 (Fall 1983): 75.
"Late Search." The Seattle Review 4.2 (Fall 1981): 9.
Poems (in anthologies)
"Interlude: Still Still." Poets of the New Century. David R. Godine, 2001.
"Whether or Not There Are Apples." Poets of the New Century. David R. Godine, 2001.
"Elegy for Lessons." Poets of the New Century. David R. Godine, 2001.
"Slide" Poetry Daily. Featured poet on August 14, 2000.
"Interlude: Still Still." Poets of the New Century. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1996. 323-24.
"Midwestern Villanelle." Hard Choices: An Iowa Review Reader. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1996. 323-24.
"In That Year." Articulations: the Body and Illness in Poetry. Ed. Jon Mukand. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1994. 4.
"French Horn." The Pushcart Prize XVII: Best of the Small Presses, 1993/1994. 463-465.
"Midwestern Villanelle." The Best American Poetry. Ed. Charles Simic and David Lehman. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
To Rise So Suddenly." Keener Sounds: Selected Poems from the Georgia Review. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987.
"Paper Bird," "Open Heart," "Floating Gallery," "After Love," "Geographies," "Four Years After Your Deliberate Drowning," "The Drowned Among Us," "Drownproofing Lesson," "Unopened," "Last Bird," "To Rose So Suddenly," Benchmark: Anthology of Contemporary Illinois Poetry. Urbana: Stormline P, 1988. 2-18.
"To Rise So Suddenly." Benchmark: Anthology of Contemporary Illinois Poetry. Urbana: Stormline P, 1988. 2-18.
"Geographies." The Creative Process: Ten Years at Ragsdale. Lake Forest: The Ragsdale Foundation, 1986. 33.
"To Rise So Suddenly." The Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry. Los Angeles: Monitor Book Company, 1985.