Monthly Member Meetup

Speaker Bio:

Patricia Clark, poet of place and nature, is the author of six volumes of poetry, including Sunday
Rising, The Canopy and most recently Self Portrait with a Million Dollars. Her seventh book O
Lucky Day has just been published (January 2025) by Madville Publishing. Her work has
appeared in The Atlantic, Gettysburg Review, Poetry, and Slate,among others. Patricia’s many
awards include a Creative Artist Grant in Michigan, the Mississippi Review Prize, the
Gwendolyn Brooks Prize, and co-winner of the Lucille Medwick Prize from the Poetry Society
of America. The Canopy received the Poetry Society of Virginia's book award for 2018. From
2005 to 2007 she served as the poet laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan. For many years, she
was Poet-in-Residence and Professor in the Department of Writing at Grand Valley State
University. More recently, she has participated in the Making Waves Initiative, which used
poetry and multimedia to explore the Lower Grand River Watershed in Michigan. A native of the
Pacific Northwest, Clark has resided in Michigan for over 30 years. Patricia credits her interest
in lyric poetry, including poetry of place, to her teachers Richard Hugo, Madeline DeFrees, and
Stanley Plumly. Her poem “Astronomy: ‘In Perfect Silence’” was launched to the moon on
January 15, 2025 on a Firefly Blue Ghost rocket, due to arrive on the moon March 1 or 2, 2025.

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