James Plath

Poet

Bloomington, IL
Illinois US

Author's Bio

James Plath has taught creative writing at Illinois Wesleyan University since 1988. Over the years he has served as a judge for national poetry contests, as a panelist on the Illinois Arts Council and Indiana Arts Commission, as an editor of the award-winning Clockwatch Review: a journal of the arts, and as director of the Hemingway Days Writers Workshop and Conference in Key West. In 1995 he was a Fulbright scholar at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, and in 2023 he was a Quarry Farm Fellow at Mark Twain's summer residence. The poetry chapbook Everything Shapes Itself to the Sea came out of the first residency, and At Quarry Farm (forthcoming from Kelsay Books) came out of the second. (Author photo credit: Audrey Peterson)

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry (University of Iowa Press, 2012)
,
Men of Our Time: Male Poetry in Contemporary America (University of Georgia Press, 1992)
Chapbooks:
Everything Shapes Itself to the Sea (Finishing Line Press, 2017)
,
Courbet, on the Rocks (White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 1994)
Journals: ,
Apalachee Quarterly
,
Howling Dog
, , ,
Panhandler
, , ,
Spillway
,
The Caribbean Writer
,
The RavensPerch
,
The Spoon River Quarterly
,
White Pelican Review

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
White
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Chicago, IL
Illinois
Raised in: 
Chicago, IL
Illinois
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Apr 12, 2025