Monday, July 23, 2012

Spotlight on Andi Stout: A New Voice in WVU Poetry

Andi Stout, going into her third year in WVU’s MFA program, has had an exceptionally productive year. She has received a number of awards and honors this past year, and has two forthcoming poetry publications.



At the beginning of March, Andi read her poems “Folding Paper” and “Six Words About Myself” at the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) Conference, at an off-site reading sponsored by Connotation Press. She read after Meg Tuite and before Natasha Trethewey (the new United States Poet Laureate). Andi’s poems received a really warm reception, as you can here in the video of her reading.



At the beginning of April, the WVU English Department nominated Andi for the Best New Poets Anthology. This anthology selects fifty poems from emerging writers across the country, and Andi was chosen as the voice to represent WVU.



Later in April, Andi won second place in the Hungry Poets Competition for her poem “Folding Paper.” This is the second time Andi has placed in this annual competition, the first time being in 2009 for “Hang in There, Baby.”



Perhaps most impressive, however, is that Andi has two poems that will be published this coming August: “Folding Paper” has been picked up by Scissors and Spackle and will be available in print and online in the 23 August issue.


The poem “Six Words About Myself” has been selected to be part of The Living Poetry Project, which prints poems on car magnets which “will be place all over the Southern California region in hopes of infusing our long commute times with poetry.”



Andi will continue infusing the WVU community with her poetry, and will undoubtedly continue to achieve spectacular things.

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