Faculty Profiles
Rebecca Lehmann
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I’m a poet and essayist. My second book, Ringer, won the prestigious Donald Hall Prize in Poetry from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, and was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2019. My first book, Between the Crackups, was published by Salt in 2011. My poems and essays have been published and featured widely, including in Ploughshares, Tin House, Copper Nickel, The Iowa Review, The Georgia Review, The Missouri Review, "The Slowdown" with Tracy K. Smith and the New York Public Library’s "Poem in Your Pocket" program. I’m at work on my third book of poetry.
I believe everybody has a story to tell, and practice an inclusive and supportive style of teaching to help each student accomplish their writing goals, while discovering and honing their voice. While I teach the basics of creative writing, I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all craft advice; I’m here to help each student with their unique writing. There are so many different ways to write a poem, story or creative essay, and I’m here to help students find theirs. I teach courses from Introduction to Creative Writing, to our Senior Comps course, and love working with beginners and experienced writers alike. All are welcome!
Education
PhD, Florida State University
MFA, The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop
BA, The University of Wisconsin at Madison
Areas of Expertise
- Poetry writing
- Creative nonfiction writing
- Fiction writing
- Writing hybrid genre forms
- Writing for social justice
- Feminist poetics
- Intersectional feminist and queer theory
- Ecopoetics
Research Interests
- Contemporary poetry
- Contemporary creative nonfiction
- Gender and women’s studies and intersectional feminism
- Children’s books
Courses Recently Taught
- ENWR 323: Poetry Workshop
- ENWR 426: Advanced Workshop in Formal Constraints
- ENWR 227: Writing Children’s Books
- ENWR 202 & ENWR 202W: Introduction to Creative Writing
- ENLT 151W: Bad, Bawdy, Brazen, Brave, Brilliant: Modern & Contemporary Women’s Literature
- ENLT 390: Feminist Poetry
Professional Experience
From 2013-2017, I was Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Potsdam. Prior to that, I held visiting professorships at Austin College and Viterbo University. I have been Assistant Professor at Saint Mary’s College since 2017.
Creative and Scholarly Work
BOOKS
Ringer (Poetry Collection)
- Winner of the 2018 Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Donald Hall Prize for Poetry.
- Finalist for 2020 Housatonic Book Award in Poetry.
- Published in 2019, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pitt Poetry Series.
- “Part eco-poetic, part confessional, the second book from Lehmann transports the reader to landscapes internal and external with acerbic wit and renegade fury.”–Publishers Weekly
- “Highly recommended; Lehmann’s talent for engaging outwardly will win her readers among poetry fans and newbies alike.”—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal, starred review.
- “Ringer teems with excellent poems…Lehmann, generously and gracefully, swings us through entire lives.”–Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions, “Must-Read Poetry: September, 2019”
- “Elegy for Almost,” from Ringer, featured on The Slowdown with Tracy K. Smith on NPR, October 24, 2019.
Between the Crackups (Poetry Collection)
- Winner of the Crashaw Prize.
- Published by Salt Modern Poets, 2011. Distribution in US, UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland.
- Positively reviewed in The Rumpus, Late Night Library, Southeast Review and other venues.
POEMS (selected)
- “Salt Marsh Moth,” Beloit Poetry Journal, forthcoming.
- “Specter,” “Chariot,” “Predictive Models,” “Night Elegy,” “The Sweating Sickness,” “Inquisition,” The Missouri Review, forthcoming.
- “Revision with Playground and Seizure,” “Pastoral,” Prairie Schooner, forthcoming.
- “Memento Mori (“Let’s start again...”),” “Memento Mori (“No skullduggery...”),” Hopkins Review, forthcoming.
- “Mule,” Pleiades, forthcoming.
- “Struck,” “Nike, Medusa, Jocasta, Split,” Waxwing, forthcoming.
- “The End,” Plume, forthcoming.
- “Come Down Spring,” Whale Road Review, forthcoming.
- “Double Moon Sonnet for Your Heart,” “The Black Dog,” Genuine Gold, forthcoming.
- “Nothing,” Harvard Review Online, September, 2021.
- “In the Occult,” Cutbank Literary Journal, No. 95, Summer 2021.
- “Cabin,” Nimrod International Journal, Vol. 64, No. 2, Spring/Summer 2021.
- “Ablation,” The Kenyon Review, Volume XLIII, Number 3, May/June 2021.
- “Descent,” Ariadne, Issue 1, April 2021.
- “Ok, Kids,” “Dawn,” “Moses,” Miracle Monocle, Issue 15, November, 2020.
- “Hypatia of Alexandria,” New York Public Library’s Poem in Your Pocket program, April 2020.
- “River,” “Make America Great Again,” Denver Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 3, Fall 2019.
- “The Afterlife,” Plume, Issue #94, June 2019.
- “The Sea,” Crazyhorse, No. 94, Fall 2018.
- “Today,” “Snow Poem,” Southwest Review, Volume 103, No. 1, 2018.
- “Locker Room Talk,” Court Green, Issue 14, Fall 2018.
- “Lepidoptera,” The Courtland Review, Issue 81, November 2018.
- “Ice Storm,” “What I Can Offer,” JuxtaProse, Volume 18, Fall 2018.
- “My Life as a Fig Tree,” “No Name,” Long Long Journal, Issue 1, Summer 2018.
- “Floodplain,” “Fever,” “Elegy for Almost,” Miracle Monocle, Issue 10, Spring 2018.
- “Prism,” sidereal magazine, Issue 4, Spring 2018.
- “Fiction Workshop,” Emrys, Vol. 35, Spring 2018.
- “Epithalamion,” The Georgia Review, Vol. 71, Issue 4, Winter 2017.
CREATIVE NONFICTION (selected)
- “Hallelujah,” Pembroke Magazine, Issue 53, Summer 2021.
- Nominated for Best American Science and Nature Writing.
- “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” Copper Nickel, No. 28, Spring 2019.
- Reprinted online at Longreads, with a readership of 200k plus, June 2019.
- Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, November, 2019.
BOOK REVIEWS (recent)
- “Turning and Turning: Jericho Brown’s The Tradition,” The Rumpus, November 2019.
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
- Poetry Today Interview with Ruben Quesada, The Kenyon Review Online, June 2021.
- “The Fertile, The Fecund, The Leaky, The Bizarre, The End: A Discussion of Forms, Labor, the Feminine, and Public Space with MC Hyland and Rebecca Lehmann,” Rain Taxi, Winter Online Edition, 2020.
Professional Memberships
Association of Writers and Writing Programs
Editorial Experience
- Founding Editor, Couplet Poetry, 2020-Present.
- Conceptualized journal, built website, solicited submissions, curated and launched premiere issue.
- Bi-annual online poetry journal dedicated to publishing two “paired” poems (a couplet) per author.
- “House Hunters International,” by Jaswinder Bolina, from Issue 1, featured on Poetry Daily.
- Faculty Advisor, Chimes & The Avenue, Saint Mary’s College 2019-2020
- Poetry Editor, Blueline Magazine, SUNY Potsdam, 2015-2017.
- Assistant Production Editor, Southeast Review, Florida State University, 2010-2011.
- Poetry Reader, Southeast Review, Florida State University, 2006-2010.