“Always precise, always moving, these poems are ‘epistles of moonlight’ from one of America’s most gifted and prolific poets.”
—MARK WAGENAAR, author of Southern Tongues Leave Us Shining
“Both the book and its title poem are lean, and confident, and devastating.”
—ELLEN DORÉ WATSON, author of pray me stay eager
About Doug
Doug Ramspeck is the author of nine collections of poetry, one collection of short stories, and a novella. Recent books include Blur (The Word Works), winner of the Tenth Gate Prize, Book of Years (Cloudbank Books), Under Black Leaves (Etchings Press), Black Flowers (LSU Press), and The Owl That Carries Us Away, winner of the G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction. His poems and stories have appeared in literary journals that include Kenyon Review, Slate, The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, and Missouri Review. He is a three-time recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. His short story, "Balloon," was listed as a Distinguished Story of 2018 by The Best American Short Stories.
Latest Blog Post
For years I read the same thing: editors wanted new and distinctive voices. I always figured this was probably just shorthand for “good,” for whatever technical and subject-matter choices struck readers as appealing.
OK: I was wrong. I get it now.
News & Events
Smoke Memories, a book of poems, has been selected by Christopher Salerno for the Lena Shull Book Award, sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society. The book will appear in 2025.
My latest short story collection, Dancing in their Dead Mother’s Dresses, will appear in 2025 through Wolfson Press, Indiana University South Bend.
Blur, a book of poems, was selected by Lauren Camp for the 2021 Tenth Gate Prize. The book was published by The Word Works in 2023. Thank you to Lauren Camp, Kasey Jueds, and Nancy White.
“Snow Crow” received First Place in the Bath Flash Fiction 19th Award.
My poetry collection, Book of Years (2021), was published by Cloudbank Books.
Under Black Leaves (2020), a novella, was published by Etchings Press (University of Indianapolis).
Distant Fires (2020), a collection of poetry, short fiction, and drama was published by Grayson Books.
Grateful that my short story, “Balloon,” which appeared in The South Carolina Review (vol. 51.1), was listed as a Distinguished Story of 2018 in The Best American Short Stories 2019, edited by Anthony Doerr and Heidi Pitlor.
Also by Doug Ramspeck
