Poet | Fiction Writer | Teacher | Critic | Editor
Gerry LaFemina believes poetry is the highest art form; believes everyone should
rock out with a guitar at least once--even if they can't play; believes teaching is a
calling; believes the New York City subways are beautiful (even if they smell
badly); believes in love, bigfoot and other mythic creatures; believes in the power
of a good meal, a good night's sleep, good wine, etc; believes laughter is a type of
prayer....
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, LaFemina holds an MFA in Poetry from
Western Michigan University as well as an MA in Literature with an emphasis on
Twentieth-century Literature from WMU. He has taught at Nazareth College,
Kirtland Community College, West Virginia University, Wheeling Jesuit University
and Sarah Lawrence College. He directs the Frostburg Center for Creative Writing
at Frostburg State University, where he is an Associate Professor of English..
rock out with a guitar at least once--even if they can't play; believes teaching is a
calling; believes the New York City subways are beautiful (even if they smell
badly); believes in love, bigfoot and other mythic creatures; believes in the power
of a good meal, a good night's sleep, good wine, etc; believes laughter is a type of
prayer....
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, LaFemina holds an MFA in Poetry from
Western Michigan University as well as an MA in Literature with an emphasis on
Twentieth-century Literature from WMU. He has taught at Nazareth College,
Kirtland Community College, West Virginia University, Wheeling Jesuit University
and Sarah Lawrence College. He directs the Frostburg Center for Creative Writing
at Frostburg State University, where he is an Associate Professor of English..
Some links featuring
my work, interviews
with me, or other
LaFemina tidbits:
Here's a link of an
interview with me
before my Winter
'04 reading at
Michigan State
University.
MSU Interview
my work, interviews
with me, or other
LaFemina tidbits:
Here's a link of an
interview with me
before my Winter
'04 reading at
Michigan State
University.
MSU Interview
Meet Gerry LaFemina
Some of these books are available through SPD Books or Amazon.com or Barnes
and Noble.com.
Rest Stops (1990), Chapbook, Stop Light Press
23 Below (1994), Poems, Back Porch Press
"In poems of desire, loss, and occasional luck, Gerry LaFemina engages the
heiroglyphic landscape of urban decay where meaning seems to emanate from a
'ritual of singles bars and punk bands,' from the beckoning illegibility of graffiti and
the 'lattice work of cracks on a windshield.' His insistence that even a place
abandoned/ by . . . lovers may seem full of grace' charges these poems with
affirmation and makes them memorable and necessary as we approach the end of
our century." -- Michael Waters
"Gerry LaFemina brings us news fromt he cities of the last decade, unforgiving
neighborhoods where 'the civilized world glows/ saffron oneither side of the
street' while the sprayed scrawls of graffiti seem 'the dialects/ of the dead, the
statements backward masked on old LPs' -- fragments of a language no one can
relaly read anymore. Lonely, icy and restless, these poems traverse the
landscapes of urban disaffection with quick intelligence, formal inventiveness, and
almost as much desperation as our times themselves." -- Mark Doty
This book is available free at the Contemporary American Poetry Archive:
CAPA
The City of Jazz and Punk (1995), Chapbook, Jump Up USA
"I consider Gerry LaFemina to be the Iggy Pop of Contemporary American poetry."
-- Jim Daniels
A Print of Wildflowers (1996), Chapbook, Ridgeway Press
Shattered Hours: Poems 1988-94 (1997), Red Dancefoor Press
"The poem as a psalm or thank you is perhaps out of fashion . . . but LaFemina
has written a book whose gratitudes, even in the midst of our suffering and
confusion, rings brightly as a bell. His poems are skillful, heartfelt, funny, and
accurate." -- William Matthews
"LaFemina's work is grounded in this world and full of tenderness and compassion
toward all of the awkward things and people who lurch through life here-- his
affection and humor are in every line of these poems." -- Jean Valentine
Zarathustra in Love (2001), Prose Poems, Mayapple Press
"Taking on everything from Persion prophets to Big foot, Jim Neighbors to UFO's
and Berlitz tapes to the George Forman Grill, Gerry LaFemina elevates the notion
of unpredictability in the prose poem. ZARATHUSTRA IN LOVE is colossal, intense,
and full of visceral magic." -- Denise Duhamel
Mayapple Press
A Garment Sewn from Night Itself (2003), Chapbook, March Street Press
"The poems in A GARMENT SEWN FROM NIGHT ITSELF are possessed of great
energy and light. They dance on the page, the way hipped poetry should.
LaFemina is a poet of imense breath and incantatory vision. These poems, this
book, will glow in your hands." -- Virgil Suarez
Buy this book from March Street Press
Graffiti Heart (2003), Anthony Piccione Prize in Poetry Winner, Mammoth Books
"Gerry La Femina's poems haunt me in the best sort of way--they have a kind of
an unsettling lyric beauty that makes me think about the big emotions (sorrow,
joy, humor) and the big subjects (life, love, death). His is a brave poetic, a canvas
filled with both the small details of day-to-day existence and their larger, more
profound implications. I defy any reader to leave Gerry La Femina's work without
being charged and changed by this poet's eye, his heady wit, and his generous
way of seeing our world."
-- Allison Joseph
"Although a clear-headed and fairly straight forward narrative drives these
poems, strung out easily over three or four lines at a time so they move gracefully
down the page, there is more here than deft and nifty story telling.
There is ethos and pathos here too of the old kind, when the poet manages a
balance between thinking and feeling that allows these poems to be genuine and
modest at the same time. And there is humor here, and honest chuckling at one's
own stupid fate. Most importantly, there is a raw reckoning of the self in its
sometimes most vulnerable states that's at the heart of our best poetry."
-- Bruce Weigl
The Window Facing Winter (2004), New Issues Press
"In THE WINDOW FACING WINTER, the urgency of the beautiful and sometimes
murderous urban landscape, set alongside the seductive, intricate oasis of the
Japanese garden, renders possible a vision into 'sliver of the absolute.' With
unflinching accuracy, LaFemina delivers a sacred, if momentary, world, laying bare
its essential loneliness, its obstinate beauty" --Robin Behn.
"Gerry LaFemina in THE WINDOW FACING WINTER, an intense, intimate and
intelligent new collection of poems, is not afraid to touch and be touched by the
extraordinary grit and grind of each new day and its aftermath. The startling
moments of vision in these poems are as radiant, elegant, and precise as they are
hard-edged--charting, as they do, the vast distances of the American landscape
and the long and lonely road home. They are heartening in their tederness and
dignity." --Eric Pankey
Order this book from SPD!
The Parakeets of Brooklyn, Winner of the 2003 Bordighera Prize in Poetry, 2005
Bordighera Press. Translated into Italian by Elisa Biagini
"What draws me to Gerry LaFemina's poems is how much of the world they
contain: Brooklyn streets, race-tracks, Vietnam, a boy's imagined transgressions,
family dramas. What is compelling is the tension between the speaker's urge to
understand and the mystery that resists explanation...listen to how these poems
search as they attempt to tease out meaning. Or maybe...or maybe is what I hear
pulsing under the lines." --Donna Masini
Order this book from SPD!
Figures from The Big Time Circus Book/ The Book of Clown Baby, (2007), Mayapple
Press
This is a double collection of playful and surprisingly moving poems on themes of
clowning and circus life. The Book of Clown Baby relates the fantastic character of
Clown Baby, occupied by visions of trick horses, parades and high-wire acts, to
the common reality where he finds himself. Figures from the Big Time Circus Book
captures the wonder of the big top, as imagined and recreated in children’s play.
Read a review of this book here.
Mayapple Press
Wish List: Stories, (2009), Marick Press
"There are 1001 reasons to read Gerry LaFemina's masterful stories about
addicts, jacked-up families, ad hoc dance clubs, barely sane vinyl record collectors,
angry nerds, gamblers, and love both stunted and verdant. You'll encounter
unforgettable characters drawn with just the right shadow, just the right light;
you'll love the descriptive passages that only an adept poetic sensibility could
write; you'll be conveyed smoothly by the El Dorado narrative pace. But amid all
the technical virtuosity, there is the boy-in-black punch of the bass, the fevered
slam-dance of drums, the burn of a Fender Stratocaster. This is Punk in short story
form, and it ought to serve as a corrective for the misinformed as to what Punk is
and what it just never can be. These stories are no mere Pop tunes that harass
the memory like salad bar gnats. This is the bona fide stuff, real Punk, unchained,
full-throated, and smoking. --Reginald McKnight
Order this book from SPD
Vanishing Horizon, (2011), Anhinga Press
VANISHING HORIZON is full of gritty and graceful intelligence. Consistently and
sumptuously detailed, these poems amount to a kind of landscape of the soul,
that aspect of self that runs the gauntlet—weathers, wearies, kneels—then grins
and keeps on. It's hard to make a way in this world, to see clearly without coming
to deep despair. This book is good light"—Tim Seibles.
Order this book from SPD
and Noble.com.
Rest Stops (1990), Chapbook, Stop Light Press
23 Below (1994), Poems, Back Porch Press
"In poems of desire, loss, and occasional luck, Gerry LaFemina engages the
heiroglyphic landscape of urban decay where meaning seems to emanate from a
'ritual of singles bars and punk bands,' from the beckoning illegibility of graffiti and
the 'lattice work of cracks on a windshield.' His insistence that even a place
abandoned/ by . . . lovers may seem full of grace' charges these poems with
affirmation and makes them memorable and necessary as we approach the end of
our century." -- Michael Waters
"Gerry LaFemina brings us news fromt he cities of the last decade, unforgiving
neighborhoods where 'the civilized world glows/ saffron oneither side of the
street' while the sprayed scrawls of graffiti seem 'the dialects/ of the dead, the
statements backward masked on old LPs' -- fragments of a language no one can
relaly read anymore. Lonely, icy and restless, these poems traverse the
landscapes of urban disaffection with quick intelligence, formal inventiveness, and
almost as much desperation as our times themselves." -- Mark Doty
This book is available free at the Contemporary American Poetry Archive:
CAPA
The City of Jazz and Punk (1995), Chapbook, Jump Up USA
"I consider Gerry LaFemina to be the Iggy Pop of Contemporary American poetry."
-- Jim Daniels
A Print of Wildflowers (1996), Chapbook, Ridgeway Press
Shattered Hours: Poems 1988-94 (1997), Red Dancefoor Press
"The poem as a psalm or thank you is perhaps out of fashion . . . but LaFemina
has written a book whose gratitudes, even in the midst of our suffering and
confusion, rings brightly as a bell. His poems are skillful, heartfelt, funny, and
accurate." -- William Matthews
"LaFemina's work is grounded in this world and full of tenderness and compassion
toward all of the awkward things and people who lurch through life here-- his
affection and humor are in every line of these poems." -- Jean Valentine
Zarathustra in Love (2001), Prose Poems, Mayapple Press
"Taking on everything from Persion prophets to Big foot, Jim Neighbors to UFO's
and Berlitz tapes to the George Forman Grill, Gerry LaFemina elevates the notion
of unpredictability in the prose poem. ZARATHUSTRA IN LOVE is colossal, intense,
and full of visceral magic." -- Denise Duhamel
Mayapple Press
A Garment Sewn from Night Itself (2003), Chapbook, March Street Press
"The poems in A GARMENT SEWN FROM NIGHT ITSELF are possessed of great
energy and light. They dance on the page, the way hipped poetry should.
LaFemina is a poet of imense breath and incantatory vision. These poems, this
book, will glow in your hands." -- Virgil Suarez
Buy this book from March Street Press
Graffiti Heart (2003), Anthony Piccione Prize in Poetry Winner, Mammoth Books
"Gerry La Femina's poems haunt me in the best sort of way--they have a kind of
an unsettling lyric beauty that makes me think about the big emotions (sorrow,
joy, humor) and the big subjects (life, love, death). His is a brave poetic, a canvas
filled with both the small details of day-to-day existence and their larger, more
profound implications. I defy any reader to leave Gerry La Femina's work without
being charged and changed by this poet's eye, his heady wit, and his generous
way of seeing our world."
-- Allison Joseph
"Although a clear-headed and fairly straight forward narrative drives these
poems, strung out easily over three or four lines at a time so they move gracefully
down the page, there is more here than deft and nifty story telling.
There is ethos and pathos here too of the old kind, when the poet manages a
balance between thinking and feeling that allows these poems to be genuine and
modest at the same time. And there is humor here, and honest chuckling at one's
own stupid fate. Most importantly, there is a raw reckoning of the self in its
sometimes most vulnerable states that's at the heart of our best poetry."
-- Bruce Weigl
The Window Facing Winter (2004), New Issues Press
"In THE WINDOW FACING WINTER, the urgency of the beautiful and sometimes
murderous urban landscape, set alongside the seductive, intricate oasis of the
Japanese garden, renders possible a vision into 'sliver of the absolute.' With
unflinching accuracy, LaFemina delivers a sacred, if momentary, world, laying bare
its essential loneliness, its obstinate beauty" --Robin Behn.
"Gerry LaFemina in THE WINDOW FACING WINTER, an intense, intimate and
intelligent new collection of poems, is not afraid to touch and be touched by the
extraordinary grit and grind of each new day and its aftermath. The startling
moments of vision in these poems are as radiant, elegant, and precise as they are
hard-edged--charting, as they do, the vast distances of the American landscape
and the long and lonely road home. They are heartening in their tederness and
dignity." --Eric Pankey
Order this book from SPD!
The Parakeets of Brooklyn, Winner of the 2003 Bordighera Prize in Poetry, 2005
Bordighera Press. Translated into Italian by Elisa Biagini
"What draws me to Gerry LaFemina's poems is how much of the world they
contain: Brooklyn streets, race-tracks, Vietnam, a boy's imagined transgressions,
family dramas. What is compelling is the tension between the speaker's urge to
understand and the mystery that resists explanation...listen to how these poems
search as they attempt to tease out meaning. Or maybe...or maybe is what I hear
pulsing under the lines." --Donna Masini
Order this book from SPD!
Figures from The Big Time Circus Book/ The Book of Clown Baby, (2007), Mayapple
Press
This is a double collection of playful and surprisingly moving poems on themes of
clowning and circus life. The Book of Clown Baby relates the fantastic character of
Clown Baby, occupied by visions of trick horses, parades and high-wire acts, to
the common reality where he finds himself. Figures from the Big Time Circus Book
captures the wonder of the big top, as imagined and recreated in children’s play.
Read a review of this book here.
Mayapple Press
Wish List: Stories, (2009), Marick Press
"There are 1001 reasons to read Gerry LaFemina's masterful stories about
addicts, jacked-up families, ad hoc dance clubs, barely sane vinyl record collectors,
angry nerds, gamblers, and love both stunted and verdant. You'll encounter
unforgettable characters drawn with just the right shadow, just the right light;
you'll love the descriptive passages that only an adept poetic sensibility could
write; you'll be conveyed smoothly by the El Dorado narrative pace. But amid all
the technical virtuosity, there is the boy-in-black punch of the bass, the fevered
slam-dance of drums, the burn of a Fender Stratocaster. This is Punk in short story
form, and it ought to serve as a corrective for the misinformed as to what Punk is
and what it just never can be. These stories are no mere Pop tunes that harass
the memory like salad bar gnats. This is the bona fide stuff, real Punk, unchained,
full-throated, and smoking. --Reginald McKnight
Order this book from SPD
Vanishing Horizon, (2011), Anhinga Press
VANISHING HORIZON is full of gritty and graceful intelligence. Consistently and
sumptuously detailed, these poems amount to a kind of landscape of the soul,
that aspect of self that runs the gauntlet—weathers, wearies, kneels—then grins
and keeps on. It's hard to make a way in this world, to see clearly without coming
to deep despair. This book is good light"—Tim Seibles.
Order this book from SPD
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