Lisa Russ Spaar

Lisa Russ Spaar is a contemporary American poet, professor, and essayist. She is currently a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Virginia and the director of the Area Program in Poetry Writing. She is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Vanitas, Rough: Poems, and Satin Cash: Poems. Her most recent book is Madrigalia: New & Selected Poems (Persea, 2021), and her debut novel, Paradise Close, was published by Persea in May 2022. Her poem “Temple Gaudete,” published in IMAGE Journal, won a 2016 Pushcart Prize.

Articles

Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry: Kate Daniels, Chloe Honum, and Corey Van Landingham
Lisa Russ Spaar takes a look at second books of poems by Kate Daniels, Chloe Honum, and Corey Van Landingham....
Sep 14, 2022
- Poetry
Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books by Nathaniel Perry and Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Lisa Russ Spaar takes a look at second books by Nathaniel Perry and Brigit Pegeen Kelly....
Feb 11, 2022
- Poetry
Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry: Pandemic Edition, Part II
Lisa Russ Spaar takes a second look at second books by poets Nate Klug, Christopher Kempf, and Carey Salerno....
Oct 12, 2021
- Poetry
Second Acts: A Second Look at Poetry Collections by Judith Hall
Lisa Russ Spaar revisits “Anatomy, Errata” and “Prospects” by Judith Hall....
May 5, 2021
- Poetry
Second Acts: Two Translations of Giovanni Pascoli
Lisa Russ Spaar reads two new translations of the Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli, "Selected Poems of Giovanni Pascoli" and "Last Dream."...
Jan 22, 2021
- Poetry
- Translation
“In the Primal Woods”: On Jill Bialosky’s “Asylum”
Lisa Russ Spaar visits “Asylum,” the new collection by Jill Bialosky....
Nov 6, 2020
- Poetry
Thinking about “the Self” (ish) in the Time of Pandemic
In her important book about love, language, and the individual, Eros the Bittersweet, philosopher, classicist, and poet Anne Carson speaks about the ways in which a discreet person, invaded and disrupted by erotic desire, is “provoke[d] to notice ...
Sep 8, 2020
Thinking about “the Self” (ish) in the Time of Pandemic
In her important book about love, language, and the individual, Eros the Bittersweet, philosopher, classicist, and poet Anne Carson speaks about the ways in which a discreet person, invaded and disrupted by erotic desire, is “provoke[d] to notice ...
Lisa Russ SpaarSep 8, 2020
Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry: Pandemic Edition
Lisa Russ Spaar takes a look at second books by Kathryn Cowles, Peter Kline, and Michael Prior....
Aug 2, 2020
- Poetry
Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry: Francesc Parcerisas and Ye Lijun
Lisa Russ Spaar takes a look at translated books by poets Francesc Parcerisas and Ye Lijun....
Feb 26, 2020
- Poetry
- Translation
Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry: L. E. Sissman and Lynn Martin
Lisa Russ Spaar takes a second look at second books by poets L. E. Sissman and Lynn Martin....
Nov 14, 2019
- Poetry
Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry: Barbara Guest and Gracie Leavitt
Lisa Russ Spaar appreciates second collections of poems by Barbara Guest and Gracie Leavitt....
Aug 25, 2019
- Poetry