Education
B.A, Stanford University, Summa Cum Laude (Major field, Social Thought).
Books
Homelight: Charlotte Lit Press, 2023.
Asylum: Improvisations on John Clare, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019.
How Small, Confronting Morning, poems of Inland Florida, Jacar Press 2016.
The Grace to Leave, poems, Anhinga Press,2012.
Fifteen Florida Cemeteries: Strange Tales Unearthed, prose, University Press of Florida, March 2011.
Still, the Mountain, poems, Paper Kite Press, June 2010.
Not Feathers Yet: A Beginner’s Guide to the Poetic Life, prose, Backwaters Press, 2007.
Solutions Beginning with A (illustrated by Maggie Taylor), prose poems, Modernbook, 2007.
Desire Lines, New and Selected Poems, BOA Editions, 2004.
The Rim Benders, Anhinga Press. poems, 2001.
Extranjera. Story Line Press, poems, 1998.
A Lifetime from Any Land We Knew (chapbook), poems and interview. Yarrow, Kutztown University, 1998.
Visions of Florida. University Press of Florida, 1994. Introductory essay (prose poem) to photographs by Woody Walters.
Hunger, poems,University of Iowa Press, 1993. Winner, Edwin Ford Piper Award (Iowa Poetry Prize),1992. Second Edition, Story Line Press, 1996.
Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano, poems, University Press of Florida, 1990. Second Edition, Betony Press, 1994.
Castings, poems, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1984. Second Edition, Betony Press , 1991.
Across Her Broad Lap Something Wonderful, poems, State Street Press (NY), 1989.
Planting the Children, poems,University Presses of Florida, 1983.
Anthologies
“Dearborn North Apartments” in City of the Big Shoulders,forthcoming from University of Iowa Press.
“El Amor y la Mujer”, “The Interpreters” and “In Tide Pools” in Women Poets Anthology, Two Sylvias Press, 2010.
“The View from Cedar Key” in UnspOILed, Heart of the Earth, 2010.
“November 13, 2006”, “Nana”, “The Sandhill Cranes”, and “Will”, in an as-yet-untitled anthology forthcoming from King’s Estate Press, 2010.
“Scafell Pike” in Alhambra Poetry Calendar, Alhambra Publishing, 2010.
“Nocturne” in Chopin with Cherries, Maja Trochimczyk, ed. lulu.com, 2010.
“Will” in Love over Sixty, Mayapple Press, 2010.
“Spell for a Poet Getting on” and “Epitaph for a Poet” in Ars Poetica, Paper Kite Press, 2009.
“Prayer for the Everglades”, “The Sandhill Cranes”, “Profusion”, and “Green and Variations” in Floridada, Rock Press, 2009.
“Freezer” in Poem in your Pocket, Abrams, 2009.
“Ode to my Legs” in Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes, C & R Publishing, 2009.
“The Sand Hill Cranes” in Alhambra Poetry Calendar, Alhambra Publishing, 2009.
“Ava’s Pony” and “Florida Panther” in Agreeable Friends: Contemporary Animal Poetry, Moonpie Press, 2008.
“Prayer for the Everglades” in Alhambra Poetry Calendar 2008, Alhambra Publishing.
“The Prodigy” in Poetry Calendar 2007, Alhambra Publishing.
“Ardor” in A Cadence of Hooves, A Celebration of Horses, Yarrowoway Mountain Press, 2008.
“Ardor” in Say This of Horses, University of Iowa Press. 2007.
“Dearborn North Apartments”, “Composition”, “A Landscape without People in It” and “Five Ways to Look at Blush” in Unexpected Harvest, A Gathering of Blessings, King’s Estate Press, 2005.
“The Rim-Benders”, “Winnowing the True”, “Spell for a Poet Getting On”, “Matanzas”, “For”, “Against” and “Django in Hang Zhou.”, in Anthology One, Alsop Review Press, 2004.
“Prayer for the Everglades” in Red, White, and Blues, Poetic Vistas on the Promise of America, University of Iowa Press, 2004.
“Nana”, “Against”, “How I Learned”, “The .38”, “Django in Hang-Zhou”, and “Spell for a Poet Getting On” in Snakebird: Thirty Years of Anhinga Poets, Anhinga Press, 2004.
The Shoes” and “Message” in Best of Sojourner, University of Iowa Press, 2004.
“Ste. Francoise des Croissants” and “The Fruit Detective” in Sudden Stories, Dinty Moore, ed., The Mammoth Book of Miniscule Fiction, Mammoth Press, 2003.
“Dearborn North Apartments” in 180, Billy Collins, ed., Harper-Collins 2003.
“Love” in Poems to Set You Free, Warner Books, 2003.
“Prayer for the Everglades” in Book of the Everglades, Milkweed Editions, 2002.
“Jacked” and “Times” in Like Thunder, University of Iowa Press, 2002.
“Spell for a Poet Getting On†and “How I Learned†in Cabin Fever, Poets at Joaquim Miller’s Cabin, 1984-2001, Word Works, 2002.
“She Drivesâ€, “The Laws of Womenâ€, “Loveâ€, “At Eightyâ€, “Dearborn North Apartmentsâ€,â€How I Learnedâ€, Astrid†and “Avalon†in The Kali Guide, Zenprint, 2002.
“Floridaâ€, “Prayer for the Evergladesâ€, “Tortoiseâ€, “Pantherâ€, and “The Sand-Hills†in Florida, an interactive CD, Stephen Robitaille, director, 2002.
“Swarmâ€, “The Third Eyeâ€, and “Three Views of Devotion†in Postcards from Pottersville II, Pottersville Press, 2002.
“Alda” in Micro: An Anthology of Really Short Stories, White Pine Press, 2002.
“Story” Northern Light, an anthology on Glenn Gould, J.D. Smith, Editor, John Gordon Burke Publisher, Inc., 2002.
“Fishing” in Fresh Water, Pudding House Press, 2002.
“Jacked” and “Times” in 9mm, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002.
“For Someone Considering Death” in American Diaspora, Virgil Suarez and Ryan Van Cleave, eds., University of Iowa Press, 2001.
“The Amateur” in Contexts and Possibilities, Stephen Murabito, Ed., Prentice-Hall, 2000.
“For Someone Considering Death” in American Diaspora, University of Iowa Press, 2000.
“On Collaboration” in Making Musics. Garland Press, 2000.
“Hide and Seek”, in Third Stream: Writing Across the Boundaries between Poetry and Prose. Lonesome Traveler Publishing Company, Madison, WI. 1999.
“Lo Que Yo Me Entere”, in Floating Borderlands, Twenty-Five Years of Hispanic Poetry, University of Washington Press, 1998
“Accidentals” in “In the Gulf with Balaji” in Always the Beautiful Answer: A Prose Poem Primer. Kings Estate Press, 1998.
“Florida” and “Matanzas” in My Shameless St. Augustine Scrapbook, Ruth Moon Kempher, ed, Kings Estate Press, 1998.
“Tools” in The World’s Best Poetry, Roth Publishing, Great Neck, NY, 1998.
“Winston, you were Wrong” and “Cleaning Cotton at Night” in Florida in Poetry, Pineapple Press, 1995.
“A Confluence”, “The Prodigy”, “How I Learned”, “Matanzas”, and “Uchepas” in Isle of Flowers, Anhinga, 1995.
“This is How I Like It”, “Today I Didn’t Wear”, “I Spent the Night”, and “I Want This Poem” in Woman as Is, William Packard, ed.,
Dell, New York 1995.
“A Note on the Acquisition…” in Articulations, University of Iowa Press, 1994.
“At Eighty” in Women and Death, Ground Torpedo Press, Ann Arbor, 1994.
“Things” in The State Street Reader, Judith Kitchen Editor, State Street Press, Brockport NY, 1990.
“This is How I Like It” in The Art of Poetry Writing, William Packard, St Martin’s Press, NY 1993.
“To Play Pianissimo” and “The Prodigy” in Mixed Voices, Milkweed Editions, 1990.
“A Note on the Acquisition…” in North of Wakulla, Anhinga Press, 1990.
“To Wear the Veil” in Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry, Monitor Book Company, Los Angeles, 1989.
“Employment” in Polyphony, Panther Press, 1989.
“Secrets of the Fur Trade” in Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry, Monitor Book Company, Los Angeles, 1988.
“Identities” in Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry, Monitor Book Company, Los Angeles, 1985.
“This is How I Like It” and “I want this Poem” in Desire, St Martin’s Press, NY 1985.
“Married Blues” in A Space Behind the Clock, Anhinga Press, 1976.
Periodicals
88
ABZ
Abiko International Literary Quarterly (Japan)
Agni
Albatross
Alchemist/Light Pamphlets
Aldeberan
American Scholar
Americas Review
Another Chicago Magazine
Artful Dodge
Atlanta Gazette
Atlanta Review
Atlantic Monthly
Back Door
Beloit Poetry Journal
Boulevard
Cafe Review
California Quarterly
Cantilever
Caprice
Carleton Miscellany
Carolina Quarterly
Cerisepress.com
Chattahoochee Review
Chariton Review
Christian Science Monitor
Connecticut Review
Controlled Burn
Convergence
Cream City Review
Crazyhorse
DeKalb Literary Arts Journal
Defined Providence
Epos
5 AM
Florida Review
Florida Quarterly
Flyway
Free Lunch
Fresh Hot Bread
Gallery (England)
Georgia Review
Grove Review
Half Tones to Jubilee
Hudson Review
I-70 Review
In Posse
International Quarterly
Iowa Review
Iris
Kalliope
Kestrel
Key West Review
The Laurel Review
Linebreak
The Literary Magazine
The Little Magazine
A Local Muse
London Magazine
London Review of Books
Lowell Review
Many Mountains
Mothering
Moving
The Midwest Quarterly
Minnesota Review
Mississippi Review
Missouri Review
Maine Edition
Negative Capability
New American and Canadian Poetry
New CollAge
New England Review/Breadloaf Quarterly
New York Quarterly
New Virginia Review
Nimrod
Nitty-Gritty
Octavo
Ohio Review
Organica
Outposts (England)
Passages North
Perspectives of New Music
Phatitude
Pierian Springs
Ploughshares
Poet Lore
Poetry New Zealand
Poetry Review (London)
Poultry
Prairie Schooner
Prime Number
Quarterly West
Quill River City
Rattle
Reed
Rock Salt Plum
Rowboat
Sawbuck
Stand
Subtropics
Sunscripts
Shenandoah
The Small Farm
This is Not Art
Snakeskin
Sojourner
Southwest Review
Southern Humanities Review
Southern Poetry Review
Southern Review
Tampa Review
Texas Quarterly
The Review
The Third Muse
Turbocharged Fortune Cookie
West Branch
Wisconsin Review
Yarrow
Honors/Awards
Recognition for Contributions to Environmental Writing (cash and prize), Florida’s Eden, 2013.
Bronze Medal, Florida Book Awards 2012
Silver Medal, Florida Book Awards 2011
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Poetry, 1984, 2003.
Florida State Division of Cultural Affairs fellowships in literature, 1979, 1981, 1990, 1993.
Writer in Residence, Randolph-Macon College, Lynchburg VA, 2003
Writer in Residence, The Writer’s Voice, Tampa, FL YMCA, 2000.
Fellow, MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, N.H., 1998.
University of Florida Teaching Improvement Program Award, 1997.
Poetry Judge, Associated Writing Programs Intro Competition. 1996
Abiko Quarterly (Japan) international poetry competition. Second place, 1996. For “Message Received in the Engine Room”.
Business College Teacher of the Year, University of Florida College of Business, 1996.
Citation for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Alachua County.
Outstanding Citizen Awards: Penwomen, City of Gainesville, Department of Nature and Cultural Operations, and the Alachua County Council on the Arts, 1995 ff.
The Alice Faye Di Castagnola Award, Poetry Society of America. Finalist. For Extranjera. 1995.
The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award. Poetry Society of America. For “Tuning”. 1995.
Celia B. Wagner Award. Poetry Society of America. For “Nombres”. Runner-up, 1993.
Edwin Ford Piper Award, (University of Iowa Press Book Prize), 1992, for Hunger..
Simon Daro Davidowicz International Poetry Competition. Honorable Mention for “The Coup” 1992.
New England Review/Breadloaf Quarterly, First Prize in Narrative Poetry, for “Six Cairns for Mary”, 1989.
New York Quarterly, Madeline Sadin Award. For “The Man Who Worked with Fellini”, 1987.
First Lectureship in Historical Poetry, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1986.
Southern Poetry Review, First Prize for Narrative Poetry, for “Changing the Speed Limit”, 1981.
Southern Poetry Review, Third Prize for Narrative Poetry, for “Traffic”, 1980.
Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Fellowships in Literature, 1979, 1981, and 1990.
Broadcasting and Miscellaneous
Poetry and Commentary on WUFT-FM, National Public Radio, USA, ongoing.
Lake Alice: 13 poems set for choir and handbells by Willis Bodine, based on poems from How Small, Confronting Morning, University of Florida Choral Festival, 2012.
Three oil paintings using Lake Alice Poems, Stewart Thomas, 2011
Transformations: A collaborative performance with collagist Derek Gores, Melbourne Museum of Art, October, 2010.
Shadows: A performance with dance (Ani Collier and others), cello (Mark Tanner), and violin (Jana Lowerer), with actors (Sarah and Nicole), mainstage Hippodrome theater, Gainesville FL, November, 2010.
The Double: A performance with dance (Ani Collier and others), actor Greg Jones and violinist Christine Chen, November 2009.
Of Air and the Water: A performance with dance (Ani Collier) and cello (Mark Tanner), March 2008,.
Ongoing Web Features: Alsop Review, thescreamonline,fishousepoems (US); Rocksaltplum (Japan); The Third Muse (Australia), and others
Curated art exhibit at Melrose Gallery for Melrose Gallery, 2007 and for Hippodrome Gallery, June 2008.
Eleven poems from Forty-Four Ambitions performed as art songs, Paul Richards composer, 2007.
“To Play Pianissimo” and “Grandmother Speaks of the Old Country” featured by Ted Kooser, in his newspaper column, 2006.
Various poems and commentaries featured on “Recess”, NPR ,2005-date.
“Sleep Positions” and “Dearborn North Apartments” featured on Writer’s Almanac, NPR with Garrison Keillor.
Four Poems performed with Dance Alive!’s On the Edge, Oct 27-8, 2005.Center for Performing Arts, Gainesville,. FL, toured Nov 18-20 to South Florida.
“Seven Turtles” in “Scattered Voices, James Paul Sain, composer, at International Festival of Electroacoustic Music, Gaineville FL, 2003. Reprised at Society of Electroacoustic Composers 2005 Annual Convention, Muncie IN.
Mata Hari (libretto and title role) for Dance Alive!:Kim Tuttle choreographer; Stella Sung, Composer; Margaret Tolbert, sets. 2001
Poetry and Commentary on WUFT-FM (Gainesville, Florida), ongoing.
“Jane’s War”, A Civil War story and poems, with music.
WUFT-FM (National Public Radio), Gainesville, Florida, 1999.
Featured on Society of Underground Poets, hour-long program on World (Public) radio; Lexington, KY February. 1999.
Four poems from Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano, with Jackie Hairston on piano. Atlantic Center for the Arts, July 1998.
Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano, a performance with Kevin Sharpe, classical piano and James Paul Sain, composer, at Florida State Music Teachers Annual Conference, 1998; repeated at Central Florida Community College, 1999 and at The Villages, FL 2005. Broadcast on WUFT-FM.
Four Poems (from Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano), music for saxaphone, piano, and voice by Beth Weimann, 1998.
Winner, Orvis Composition Prize. Performed at the University of Hawaii, March 2000.
“Spiderweb with Insect” for Spiderwebs, symphonic tone poem by Raymond Chobaz, Gainesville Symphony, 1997
“Boy in the Dark”. Libretto for Chorus and Dance. With David Rakowski. Boston Musica Viva, 1997.
“Etches”: Four Songs (from Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano), for voice and piano; composer Bud Udell, 1996.
Featured writer in 1995-1996 Poet’s Market (Writer’s Digest Books, 1995).
Two poems on Phone-A-Poem, Emerson College, Boston, 1994. “New Letters on the Air”, a syndicated NPR show, Missouri, ( Interview and readings), 1994.
Interview, NPR, by Bill Dudley, Florida Humanities Council Series, 1993.
“Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano”, a performance with Kevin Sharpe (pianist) and James Paul Sain (composer) 1992.
Speaker’s Bureau, Florida Humanities Council, 1992, 1993.
“New Letters on the Air”, a syndicated NPR show (with Pattiann Rogers), Missouri, 1986.
“Poetry Now”, BBC radio, London, thirteen poems at various times; readings, Plath and HD.
“Symphony for a Saint”, Libretto for Symphony Orchestra, Soloists and Dance. Premiered in Tuscaloosa, Alabama 1988 (John White, composer).
“Momotaro the Peach Boy”, Words and Photographs. With Dianne Farris, photographer. The Art Collector Gallery, Gainesville, Florida, 1990.
Teaching
Rainier Writers Workshop, a low residency MFA program housed at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma WA: faculty 2005-present.
Poetry Flash, Berkeley, CA: Featured Poet, April 2015.
Keynote Speaker, Springtime Poets Conference, St. George, UT, March 2015
Poet-in-Residence, Zion National Park, UT, March 2015.
Keynote Speaker, Palm Coast Friends of the Library Annual Meeting, Palm Coast, FL, November 2014. (Many presentations over the past many years at libraries and universities across FL and at the Miami Bookfair).
Maple Leaf Bar, New Orleans, LA. Featured Poet, November 2014.
Speaker, Lakeland Public Library, October 2014.
Featured Poet, Sandhills Writers Retreat, San Antonio, FL, May 2014.
Featured Poet: Piccolo Spoleto, Charleston, SC., June 2013.
Keynote Speaker, NFSPS (National Federation of State Poetry Societies), Memphis, 2010.
Keynote Speaker, Southern Association of Teachers of Creative Writing, Fairhope AL, 2009.
Keynote Speaker, NFSPS (National Federation of State Poetry Societies), Memphis, 2010.
Keynote Speaker, Southern Association of Teachers of Creative Writing, Fairhope AL, 2009.
Faculty, Anhinga Writer’s Conference, Gainesville, FL 2009, 2010.
Faculty, Mount Rainer Writer’s Workshop, a low residency MFA program 2005-present.
Keynote Speaker, Utah State Poetry Society, Salt Lake City, UT, 2008.
Featured Speaker, 20th International Congress of Poets Laureate, Montgomery AL, 2007.
Writer in Residence, Randolph-Macon College, spring 2007.
Keynote Speaker, Florida Poetry Society Annual Convention, 2005.
Featured Speaker, NFSPS, (National Federation of State Poetry Societies), Melbourne, FL 2001.
Featured Speaker, Books Alive! Writer’s Conference, Panama City, FL 1998 and 2001.
Keynote Speaker, Kirtland (MI) Young Writer’s Conference, 2000.
Master Artist , Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL., 1998.
Faculty/Featured Speaker, Charleston (SC) Writer’s Conference, 1998.
Keynote Speaker, Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Annual Literary Conference, Jacksonville, Florida, 1997.
Faculty, Suncoast Writer’s Conference, St Petersburg FL, 1997.
Writer in residence, Writers and Books, Rochester NY, with workshop (“On Performance”),1996.
Faculty, White River Writer’s Workshop, Batesville, AR, 1995.
Faculty, The North Shore Young Writers’ Conference. Waverly, MA. 1993-1996.
Gainesville, FL, Writers in the Schools Program, teaching the writing of poetry to middle school and high school, 1986-1992.
Lecturer, Making Florida Home, a six week series on fiction set in Florida, funded by Florida Humanities Council, 1994.
Lecturer, Let’s Talk About It, a six week series on women’s history, funded by the State Library of Florida, 1993.
Lecturer, Encounters, a six week library class in great poets, funded by the Florida Humanities Council (2 series), 1991.
Creative Writing workshops at various universities and arts venues, 1973 to date.(references available)
Societies
International Congress of Poets Laureate
PEN
Poets and Writers (NY), listed author since 1978.
Phi Beta Kappa (academic honor soc.), Chair, Creative Arts Committee, 1994-97, Vice President 1997-98, President 1998-99.
Poetry Society of America
Reviews
Not Feathers Yet: A Beginner’s Guide to the Poetic Life.
(from Amazon)
For Every Long-Time Beginner, May 15, 2007
By Peggy Miller “Peggy Miller” (The Villages, FL)
The tone of Not Yet Feathers is wonderful: direct and intimate at the same time respectful of the reader in her/his endeavor. And though I’ve written poetry for a long time, I don’t find it off-putting at all. In fact every time I’ve ever written a poem— maybe because I want something new each time— I feel as though I am just starting out. All past successes evaporate. So to have a book intended for “beginners” seems just right.
How good the book sounds! And what sound advice the author gives– unique advice! She is particularly good at articulating how to keep in touch with ones subconscious, creative mind.
And beyond that, amazingly, I will tell you this. Without intending to apply myself to the advice, and NOT on a Tuesday, and NOT at Panera’s (where I have a standing weekly appointment to write), I sat down yesterday and wrote like a madman. And I was writing first drafts on the computer: something I have never done before, but which Haskins finds the least obstructive for her own writing.
A wise, insightful summation of a working poet’s life., May 5, 2007 By Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA)
Carolyn See gave us an idiosyncratic, yet useful and insightful, guide for beginning fiction writers in “Making a Literary Life,” and Lola Haskins has done the same for beginning poets with “Not Feathers Yet.” Poetic novices will find all sorts of helpful hints–how to submit poems to editors and keep track of submissions, on which poets to read and how to broaden your reading experience, on how to perfect your style and tell the difference between the good and bad in your own work. But poets who are well past the novitiate stage will also find Haskins’ insights intelligent, useful, and wise. Virtually every page contains several quotable, elegantly phrased bits of wisdom. A good example is on page 38: “Adjectives are spices like coriander and garlic and ginger. It’s true that they can make food interesting, but like coriander and garlic and ginger, they need to be used with discretion or they’ll be all you taste.” Her suggested writing exercises also are well-taken, designed to stretch minds and embolden spirits as well as expanding styles. (Example: “All of us have done something we’ve never told anyone, because we know it would make us look a way we wouldn’t want to be seen. Write a poem using the most telling information you’ve been hiding.”) As a journeyman poet of 20 years’ standing, I occasionally found myself disagreeing with Haskins’ advice–for example, I don’t think it’s ALWAYS necessary to omit commas at the end of a given line. But the depth and breadth of Haskins’ insight, as well as the sheer vividness of her writing, make such quibbles negligible. I particularly loved this passage in Chapter 10: “Bestsellers are, with a few exceptions, the Holiday Inns of literature. Even before you open the door, you know where the bed, the dresser, and the closet are going to be…(b)ut great poems are never Holiday Inns. They’re those idiosyncratic hotels on side streets that bring on the apprehensive feeling you get walking into a dim lobby, the glances you and your companion exchange as you climb the stairs, the unexpected blast of wind that assaults you through warped landing windows. You know you won’t know what’s going to happen here until you’ve spent the night.” “Not Feathers Yet” deserves a place on the bookshelf beside “Making a Literary Life” and Stephen Fry’s “The Ode Less Traveled,” and I can think of no higher praise. If you’re a beginning–or even long-practicing–poet, you will find it a bracing, delightful, and highly instructive book.
Fantastic guide; both practical and inspiring!, April 24, 2007 By Nancy A. Henry (Westbrook, ME USA)
As a poet, I eagerly devour writing guides of all descriptions; this book by poet Lola Haskins is a cut above the rest. Her way of approaching the poetic life–both writing and the life that nurtures it–is enriched by her “fresh eyes”. I found this book to be the perfect blend of helpful information and guidance for the beginner through accomplished poet–just the right combination of exercises, practical advice, and philosophical musings. There is a particularly good chapter on reading effectively in various venues. It was enjoyable to read, full of helpful information, and left me “juiced up” and excited about writing. Highly recommended!
L. J. Sahler (on Amazon)
Lola Haskins’ poetry intrigues and startles, turning appearances inside out with elegant and unflinching grace. I have always loved her work, have read her for years…..and yet, on reading her new poems in Desire Lines, feel an excitement akin to discovering a new and essential voice, one that is profound, deeply haunting, and artistically exquisite. This is a book for the long journey….for where the road turns….
It’s rare to find a collection in which every poem demonstrates a purity of control that never crystallizes into rigidity, but this one makes it. The major difficulty in praising these poems is not to fall overboard and quote them all.
Alsop Review
The Rim Benders is a compelling symphony for the printed page. The reader will find it hard to accept silence until the final chords have sounded.
Adirondack Review
With inklings of Vallejo, Haskins takes the stance of a foreigner tottering between “home” and “other” in this thin but powerful collection of poetry. Haskins’ other poems are small vignettes and stories, of brief glimpses into the lives of locals and travelers. Tightly worded, they snap with a mariachi’s nimble feel for music. Haskins has a gift for juggling pain and pleasure, wisdom and fear, life and death, as she explores Mexican culture. She understands Lorca’s idea of duende, a passionate spirit, and evokes it naturally in her work. Her writing demonstrates an acuteness of perception and a maturity of restraint that are refreshing because they produce subtle, thoughtful expressions that stand out from today’s stream of in-your-face, confessional and theraputic verse. Extranjera, Haskins’ seventh book of poetry, seems flawed in only one way, its title. For the cumulative effect of this collection of poems is to reveal Lola Haskins as no foreigner to these poetic landscapes. Here, she is on solid home ground.
Booklist
Hunger is a cabinet of crystals each one with a cutting edge. It’s a wonder.
Beloit Poetry Journal
She knows we are rooted to the earth but long for stars…And she’s wise enough to know that love searches us out. Dazzling.
Charlotte (N.C.) Observer –
She takes risks and the risks pay off. This is an altogether satisfying book.
Northwest Arkansas Times
(the poems) richly present the experience of women, as the complexity of their material, emotional, and imaginative lives presses against the constraints of their assigned roles… wonderfully evocative
Hudson Review
..convincing and exquisitely visual. It plays off a painterly use of visualization and technique even as it enacts the limits of such artistry in the face of real feeling…It is the clarity of Haskins’ poems (and her speakers’) observations combined with the sometimes elegant, sometimes searing restraint with which the observations are made, that gives these poems their impact.
Colorado Review
The poems, if they are feminist, are so in the best sense of that term, because they do more than prescribe political territory. They engage in real exploration. (These poems) have depth of feeling as well as historical insight..true radiance.
Southern Humanities Review
Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano
This charming work should appeal to musicians as much as to readers of poetry…More books like this would widen poetry’s audience.
Booklist.
Throughout the history of Western music composers have joined poets in setting existing poems to music. The profoundly gifted poet, Lola Haskins, has accomplisted a splendid reversal by writing about the piano and its interpreters… Haskins is a first-rate poet, and Forty-Four Ambitions is recommended for delightful reading and a modest gift to a fellow teacher of piano.
American Music Teacher.
I first saw this exquisite book as a Ravenna mosaic, the impact of the carefully set, dazzling, tesserae much more than the sum of their parts. On re-reading I learned to appreciate it as a single piece of music, playing through the pages like the Bach sarabande that runs across the seven chapter titles. A magician of metaphor, Haskins composes these forty-four compact poems so the whole book becomes a glowing metaphor for the relationship of art and life.
Beloit Poetry Journal
The reader is continually delighted by juxtapositions that are audacious yet fitting…Patterns of Haskins’ pieces continue to resonate after closing the book. (Forty-Four Ambitions) is no small achievement.
New Letters
Already I find myself looking at scores in a new and fresh way. Thank you!
Nelita True, Chair Piano Department, Eastman School of Music
A unique book!
American College of Musicians
Across Her Broad Lap Something Wonderful
Enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s especially fine how the poems all reflect on each other.
Beloit Poetry Journal
She is certainly one of the few original voices among young American poets. She takes big risks, and her poetry penetrates straight to the marrow of the bone.
Midwest Quarterly.
Historical accuracy blends easily with lyrical invention … Haskins unavoidably enters the lives of those she considers … stunning realism.
Southern Poetry Review.
Elegant, thoughtful, sophisticated poems.
Beloit Poetry Journal
Planting the Children
A fine first volume. The poems spring to life like plants.
Hudson Review –
What she has to say is likely to remain in memory.
Booklist.