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Marcus Wicker

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Marcus Wicker
Born (1984-07-09) July 9, 1984 (age 40)
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
EducationIndiana University
Occupation(s)Poet, professor
EmployerUniversity of Memphis
Notable workMaybe the Saddest Thing
Silencer
AwardsHarvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship
NEA Creative Writing Fellowship
National Poetry Series Prize
Pushcart Prize
Websitewww.marcuswicker.com

Marcus Wicker (born July 9, 1984)[1] is an American poet. He is the author of the full-length poetry-collections Silencer—winner of the Society of Midland Authors Award and Arnold Adoff Award for New Voices—and Maybe the Saddest Thing, selected by D. A. Powell for the National Poetry Series.[2][3] Wicker is the recipient of fellowships from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation.[4][5][6] His work has appeared in various literary and commercial publications including The Nation, The Atlantic, Oxford American, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Poetry, and elsewhere.[7][8][9][10][11] He teaches creative writing in the MFA program at the University of Memphis.

Early life and education

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Wicker was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up in Ypsilanti.[12] He has described taking to writing at an early age, beginning with mystery stories and personal journals in elementary school and then encountering poetry thanks to his tenth grade English teacher who took his class to the National Youth Poetry Slam at the University of Michigan. Seeing students his own age perform their writing encouraged Wicker to pursue his own work.[13] He earned an MFA from Indiana University in 2010 and completed a post-graduate fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown the year after.[14][15]

Career

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Wicker's debut collection Maybe the Saddest Thing won the 2011 National Poetry Series Prize, selected by D.A. Powell.[16] The 79-page collection, published with Harper Perennial,[17] was also a nominee for the NAACP Image Award for Literary Work - Poetry.[18] Reviewing the book in Slate, Jonathan Farmer wrote, "In both sound and sense, Wicker nails the terrible courage of standing out and dignifies it with an abrupt austerity."[19] In Muzzle Magazine, Kendra DeColo said the collection "celebrates the messy and uncomfortable," offering "Failure [as] a sacred contract, giving us permission to enter the poems as imperfect beings, to stumble as we question and interact with issues the poems explore."[20]

In 2011, Wicker was a Ruth Lilly Fellow.[21] He won a 2014 Pushcart Prize for his poem, "Interrupting Aubade Ending In Epiphany",[22] originally published in the Southern Indiana Review (Spring 2012), and the Missouri Review's 2016 Miller Audio Prize Contest for his poem "Watch us Elocute", originally published in the Boston Review.[23]

Wicker's second collection, Silencer, also an NAACP Image Award nominee, appeared with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on September 5, 2017.[24][25] Of Silencer, renowned critic Stephanie Burt writes, “Wicker makes witty yet serious, encyclopedically allusive work whose excitable energies and wide range of diction belie the gravity of their topics: structural injustice, familial loyalty, uneasy adulthood, and institutional racism.”[26]

Wicker began teaching English at the University of Southern Indiana in 2012[27] and joined the creative writing faculty in the MFA program at the University of Memphis in 2017.[28] He is currently the Mary I. Bunting Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.[4]

Awards and Honors

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  • 2023 — Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship[4]
  • 2021 — National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Writing Fellowship[5]
  • 2021 — Poetry Society of America Lyric Poetry Award[29]
  • 2020 — Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship[30]
  • 2018 — Society of Midland Authors Award for Silencer[2]
  • 2018 — Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for New Voices for Silencer[3]
  • 2011 — Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship[6]
  • 2010 — Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship[15]

Bibliography

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Poetry

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Collections
  • Silencer, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 2017 ISBN 978-1328715548
  • Maybe the Saddest Thing, Harper Perennial, October 2012 ISBN 978-0062191014
List of poems
  • “Ars Poetica,” Academy of American Poets, 2017[31]
  • “Conjecture on the Stained-Glass Image of White Christ,” Poetry, December 2016[32]

References

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  1. ^ Wicker, Marcus [@a2poet] (2023-07-09). "It's true, it's my birthday! 39 today" (Tweet). Retrieved 2024-02-28 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b "Past Winners | The Society of Midland Authors". The Society of Midland Authors. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Arnold Adoff Poetry Award Recipients | Kent State University". www.kent.edu. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "Marcus Wicker". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Marcus Wicker". National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships". Poetry Foundation. 28 January 2024. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  7. ^ Wicker, Marcus (17 November 2016). "Film Noir at Gallop Park, On the Edge". The Nation. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  8. ^ Wicker, Marcus (18 October 2020). "Blursday Blues". The Atlantic. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  9. ^ Wicker, Marcus. "Poem for an Election Year". Oxford American. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  10. ^ Wicker, Marcus (11 January 2019). "Parable of Beauty & Privilege". The New Republic. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  11. ^ Wicker, Marcus (2019). "Sugar Ray Extols the Virtues of a Good Death to Son, Quick". Ploughshares. p. 177. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  12. ^ "About – Marcus Wicker". marcuswicker.com. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  13. ^ Read, Ben. "Issue Fourteen: Ben Read speaks with Marcus Wicker". The Adroit Journal (14). Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  14. ^ "Publications from M.F.A. alumni". Department of English. Indiana University. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  15. ^ a b "All Fellows". FINE ARTS WORK CENTER in Provincetown. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  16. ^ "Fiction Book Review: Maybe the Saddest Thing by Marcus Wicker. HarperCollins, $13.99 trade paper (96p) ISBN 978-0-06-219101-4". Publishers Weekly. November 26, 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  17. ^ Ripatrazone, Nick. "Recommended Books Maybe the Saddest Thing by Marcus Wicker". Third Coast Magazine. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  18. ^ Sandell, Scott (11 December 2012). "NAACP Image Awards: The complete nominations list". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  19. ^ Farmer, Jonathan (4 January 2013). "Love Letters to Kenny G, Dave Chappelle, and RuPaul". Slate. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  20. ^ DeColo, Kendra. "Marcus Wicker Review". MUZZLE MAGAZINE. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  21. ^ Lim, Kathryne (April 7, 2014). "Poets On The Rise: Eight Poets to Watch For – Blue Mesa Review". Blue Mesa Review. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  22. ^ Henderson, Bill (2014). Pushcart Prize XXXVIII: best of the small presses, 2014. OCLC 829989392. Retrieved 16 July 2017 – via WorldCat.
  23. ^ "2016 Audio Contest Winner in Poetry: Marcus Wicker". The Missouri Review Soundbooth. June 16, 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  24. ^ Crowley, Alex (June 23, 2017). "Fall 2017 Announcements: Poetry". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  25. ^ "Fiction Book Review: Silencer by Marcus Wicker. Mariner, $15.99 trade paper (96p) ISBN 978-1-328-71554-8". Publishers Weekly. August 21, 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
  26. ^ Burt, Stephanie. "Silencer Review". Poets.org. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  27. ^ Mcbain, Roger (February 6, 2014). "Poets take their corners as featured contenders in Arts Council's main event , Friday". Evansville Courier & Press. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  28. ^ "Creative Writing Faculty". University of Memphis. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  29. ^ "Lyric Poetry Award 2011". Poetry Society of America. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  30. ^ Hill, Allison (10 February 2021). "TN Arts Organizations Receive 11 NEA Grants". Tennessee Arts Commission. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  31. ^ Wicker, Marcus. "Ars Poetica by Marcus Wicker". Poets.org. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  32. ^ Wicker, Marcus (29 January 2024). "Conjecture on the Stained Glass Image of White Christ at Ebenezer Baptist Church by Marcus Wicker". Poetry Magazine. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
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