Western Poetry Faculty Member Chosen for Prestigious Poetry Prize

GUNNISON, Colorado: Western Colorado University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing (GPCW) is pleased to announce that poet Eduardo Corral has selected out takes/glove box, an anthology by GPCW Nature Writing and Poetry faculty member Maya Jewel Zeller, to receive the 2022 New American Poetry Prize.

“I am really delighted that Maya’s work is being recognized in this way,” GPCW Poetry Concentration Director CMarie Fuhrman said. “Maya’s dedication to the craft, poetic brilliance, and teaching is present in everything she does. We feel so fortunate to have her on our faculty.”

In addition to the recognition that comes with the selection, Zeller will receive a $1500 award. out takes/glove box is tentatively slated for publication in October 2023.

Since bringing her first collection of poems to the public more than a decade ago, Zeller has collected an impressive list of awards and accolades from the poetry community. In addition to being the recipient of a Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation as well as a residency in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Maya has presented her work internationally at the University of Oxford and in Madrid at the Unamuno Author Festival.

Zeller’s Accolades

She is currently working on a memoir called “Raised by Ferns,” as well as an academic textbook, “Advanced Poetry: A Craft Guide and Anthology,” under contract with Bloomsbury (UK). Her published work includes the interdisciplinary collaboration (with visual artist Carrie DeBacker) Alchemy For Cells & Other Beasts (Entre Rios Books, 2017), the chapbook Yesterday, the Bees (Floating Bridge Press, 2015), and the poetry collection Rust Fish (Lost Horse Press, 2011). She is also a co-editor, with Sharma Shields, of the anthology Evergreen: Grim Tales and Fables from the Gloomy Northwest (Scablands Books, 2021). Maya’s prose appears in such places as The Rumpus, Brevity, Bellingham Review, and Booth Journal. Find Maya on Twitter @MayaJZeller.

About Western Colorado University: Established in 1901, Western is a four-year public institution in Gunnison, Colo. that offers undergraduate and graduate programs in over 100 areas of study. Our campus on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains is home to more than 2,000 resident students, while approximately 1,600 additional students take courses at the University remotely.
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Photo Credit: Dean Davis