Almnus David Biespiel Announced as Finalist for the Nona Balakian Citation

David Biespiel was a finalist for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from National Book Critics Circle Award. The other finalists were Maureen Corrigan, Ruth Franklin, James Marcus. The winner, Charles Finch.

A graduate of the MFA Program in Creative Writing, David Biespiel founded the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters in 1999 as an independent writing and creativity studio in Portland's historic Hawthorne district. He is a poet, literary critic, memoirist, and contributing writer at American Poetry Review, Poetry, Politico, New Republic, The Rumpus, Slate, and The New York Times, among other publications. He is the author of numerous books, most recently The Education of a Young Poet, Charming Gardeners, A Long High Whistle, and The Book of Men and Women, which was chosen one of the Best Books of the Year by the Poetry Foundation. He has been a Lannan, National Endowment for the Arts, and Stegner fellow, a National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalist for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and the recipient of two Oregon Book Awards, in poetry and general nonfiction. He is Poet-in-Residence at Oregon State University. Forthcoming in 2019 is a new book of poetry, Republic Cafe.

Join us in congratulating David on his accomplishments!