Rita Kiefer.
Rita Kiefer, Poet and Professor emerita of English and Women's Studies at the
University of Northern Colorado, has written four collections of poetry,
three of which have been published:
Unveiling (Chicory Blue Press: Goshen, CT.), 1993
Trying on Faces (Monkshood Press: Denver, CO) 1995
Nesting Doll (University Press of Colorado: Boulder, CO) 1999
About Nesting Doll:
Kiefer celebrates the power of words to transform life while exploring the
mysterious ways memory and language help shape each other. The title
poem . . . calls into question the permanence of vocation and examines
endless possibilities of the relationships between an individual's
spiritual and sensuous lives. (University Press of Colorado Catalog)
Nesting doll is . . . reminiscent of the early work of Louise Gluck in
that it dramatizes heartrendingly the process and the risk of
self-discovery in the face of daunting odds. The resulting testimony
is deeply moving and, like all achieved poetry, beautiful. (Jonathan Holden)
A completed manuscript, Other Skins, is circulating, and at present she has
a fifth work-in-progress.
Among the anthologies that have solicited and published her poems and
essays are the following:
Beyond Lament (Northwestern University Press: Chicago, ILL)
The Crimson Edge (Chicory Blue Press: Goshen, CT.)
Tracks in the Snow: Essays by Colorado Poets (Mesilla: Boulder, CO)
Wingbone: Poetry from Colorado (Sudden Jungle Press: Colorado Springs, CO)
The West of Ireland
Nearly 100 of her poems have been published in some 70 journals,
including: The Bloomsbury Review, Ploughshares, Southern Poetry
Review,
Southwest Review, Crosscurrents, Cimarron Review. She has also
published several essays and journal articles. Among the numerous poetry
readings and papers she has presented on literary subjects, the most noteworthy was
in response to a special invitation to give a poetry reading and lecture
at the International Conference of Women Writers held in Rosario, Argentina the summer
of '98.
One of her poems "Like This" was the basis for a musical composition and
has been recorded by "Ars Nova" on the CD Soundscapes: Music from Colorado
and Beyond (New Arts Recordings NAR - 002).
She has received every major award the University of Northern Colorado
offers in the areas of teaching and scholarship: The Distinguished Scholar
Award for scholarship, M. Lucile Harrison Award for outstanding faculty
person, Professor of the Year designated by the students for teaching.
Other awards for excellence in teaching include those conferred by Arts
and Sciences, Golden Key Society, Mortarboard, and the Panhellenic Society
of UNC, all for Excellence in Teaching.
Her national awards include: Cambridge Massachusetts Grolier Poetry Prize
for the poems "Prisoner" and Self-Portrait"; Chester H. Jones
National Poetry Competition for "Rapture." She has been named a
Danforth Associate and included in Who's Who Among America's Best Teachers.
The following are her regional honors: the First Colorado Poetry Festival chose to feature her on their program as one of only six Colorado poets; the Rocky Mountain Women's Institute appointed her as an Associate; she was named Outstanding Woman of Weld County. She has received grants from the Colorado Council on the Arts and the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities. Recently, she received a Colorado Council on the Arts 2000 Artists Fellowship.
Recent
publications are:
"Poetry and Gender: An Essay." The Bloomsbury Review.
Vol. 20/Issue 3 May/June 2000.
"Rain." The Midwest Quarterly, April 2000.
Among her extracurricular activities in the community, the primary one is
her volunteer work of conducting poetry sessions weekly with the residents
of A Woman's Place, Greeley's Safehouse for abused women. For the past
eight years she has served as a poetry editor for the journal, Weber Studies.
rbkiefe@unco.edu