Creech, Morri 1970-

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Creech, Morri 1970-

PERSONAL: Born 1970, in Moncks Corner, SC; children: Hattie. Education: Attended Winthrop University, 1995; McNeese State University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home— Lake Charles, LA. Office— McNeese State University, Kaufman Hall, Lake Charles, LA 70609.

CAREER: Poet and educator. McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA, faculty member.

AWARDS, HONORS: Ruth Lilly fellow, the Poetry Foundation, 1997; Louisiana Arts Prize literature fellowship, 1998; Wick Poetry Prize for first books, Kent State University, 2000, for Paper Cathedrals; Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, Waywiser Press, 2005, for Field Knowledge.

WRITINGS

Paper Cathedrals (poetry), Kent State University Press (Kent, OH), 2001.

Field Knowledge (poetry), Waywiser Press (Baltimore, MD), 2006.

Work has been published in periodicals, such as Poetry, Southern Review, Missouri Review, Sewanee Review, New Criterion, Crazyhorse, and Tar River. Contributed poetry to Listening to the Earth, photographs by Robert ParkeHarrison, 21st Editions (South Dennis, MA), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Morri Creech was born in the South Carolina town of Moncks Corner and was educated at Winthrop University and McNeese State University. As a graduate student in creative writing at McNeese, he became the school’s first recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry fellowship, a national competition underwritten by the Poetry Foundation. Creech’s work has been widely published in noted poetry journals such as Poetry and New Criterion, and he has since published two award-winning collections of his poetry. His first collection, Paper Cathedrals, was awarded the Wick Poetry Prize, which included publication of the poems by Kent State University Press.

Field Knowledge was selected from over 360 entries to earn Creech the inaugural Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize in 2005. Callie Siskel commented in a New Criterion review that Creech has “set the bar high” for subsequent applicants. She went on to declare: “Creech weaves form into the delicate description of raw, Southern landscapes. . .. He makes the reader question his own past and the facility with which it can be restored.” In a review for Booklist, Ray Olson remarked: “There is a use of the European poetic tradition that is as gratifying and profound as it is assured. This man’s good.”