Rebecca Foust

Poet

CA
California US
Twitter/X: 

Author's Bio

Rebecca Foust’s new book, YOU ARE LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR: Love Poems was Runner-Up for the 2024 Backbone Press Chapbook Prize and released in October 2024. ONLY released from Four Way Books in 2022 and received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly Foust is the author of three chapbooks including The Unexploded Ordnance Bin (2018 Swan Scythe Chapbook Award) and four books including Paradise Drive, (Press 53 Award for Poetry). Recognitions include the James Dickey Prize, and the Fischer Cantor Prize in 2024, and the New Ohio Review Prize in 2023, the 2020 Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry judged by Kaveh Akbar, the CP Cavafy and James Hearst poetry prizes, a 2017-19 Marin Poet Laureateship, and fellowships from The Frost Place, Hedgebrook, MacDowell, and Sewanee. Recent poems are in The Cincinnati Review, The Hudson Review, Narrative, Ploughshares, POETRY, and elsewhere. Contact her on her website, @FoustRebecca on Facebook, or @rebecca.foust.52 on Instagram. 

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
What the House Knows (Terrapin Books, 2025)
,
A Literary Field Guide to Northern Appalachia (The University of Georgia Press, 2023)
,
Alongside We Travel: Contemporary Poets on Autism (NYQ Books, 2019)
,
Healing the Divide: Poems of Kinship and Connection (Green Writers Press, 2019)
,
Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2018)
,
How Lovely the Ruins (Spiegel & Grau, 2017)
,
Red Sky: poetry on the global epidemic of violence against women (Sable Books, 2017)
,
Literature, A Pocket Anthology (Penguin, 2014)
,
Bullies and Bystanders (Tiger Bark Press, 2014)
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From the Fishouse (Fishouse.org, 2014)
,
Irresistible Sonnets (Headmistress Press, 2014)
,
Chautauqua Jr. (University of North Carolina Press, 2013)
,
The Art of Survival (King's Estate Press, 2013)
,
Woman Write Resistance (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2012)
,
At the Gate: Departures and Arrivals (Kings Estate Press, 2011)
,
Fire on Her Tongue (Two Sylvias Press, 2011)
,
Literature, A Pocket Anthology (Penguin, 2011)
,
Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2011)
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Hope Poetry (First Book Blair County, 2010)
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Natural Language (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 2010)
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When the Muse Calls, Poems of the Creative Life (Pomegranate Books, 2010)
,
Twelve Ways: An Anthology of the 2007 IWL (Kearnystreet Press, 2007)
Books:
YOU ARE LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR: LOVE POEMS (Backbone Press, 2024)
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ONLY (Four Way Books, 2023)
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Paradise Drive (Press 53, 2015)
,
All That Gorgeous, Pitiless Song (Many Mountains Moving, 2010)
,
God, Seed: Poetry & Art About the Natural World (Tebot Bach, 2010)
Chapbooks:
The Unexploded Ordnance Bin (Swan Scythe Press, 2019)
,
Mom's Canoe (Texas Review Press, 2009)
,
Dark Card (Texas Review Press, 2008)
Journals: ,
Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day
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American Book Review
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Birmingham Poetry Review
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Cider Press Review
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Great River Review
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Journal of the American Medical Association
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Margie
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Measure
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Notre Dame Review
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OmniVerse
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On the Seawall
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Oxford Poetry
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Philadelphia Stories
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Poetry Daily
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Poetry Magazine
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Spillway
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Texas Review
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The Hopkins Review
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The Hudson Review
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The Humanist
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The Seattle Review
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Verse Daily
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West Marin Review
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Women's Review of Books
,
Prizes won: 

2024: Five Points Magazine James Dickey Prize for "Parallax" and "Grounds for Dissolution." Fischer Cantor prize from the Telluride Institute for “Polaris.”

2023: New Ohio Review Prize for "Has this happened to you." Honorable mention in MacGuffin Poet Hunt 53 for “Throbber.” Book awards for ONLY: Second Place, Royal Dragonfly Award; Silver Medal, Julie Suk; Longlist finalist, Poetry by the Sea. "Stone Fruit" was Poem of the Week in The Missouri Review,https://missourireview.com/stone-fruit-b.... "War and Peace"  and "Field" featured in The Common with Tommye Blount and others, https://www.thecommononline.org/december....

2022: “At Motel 6 the Night Deedee Died” featured in Verse Daily.  “Second Gratitude” chosen as Poem of the Week and #1 on “Most Read” list for Narrative Magazine The Unexploded Ordnance Bin, Runner up for the Poetry By the Sea book prize.The Unexploded Ordnance Bin, finalist for the Julie Suk book prize.Poetry By the Sea Book Award, Second Place.   

2020: Pablo Neruda Award (Nimrod Journal) for "Blackout" and "Sit with Me," chosen by Kaveh Akbar

2019: Hedgebrook Fellowship, Lascaux Review Flash Fiction prize.

2017-19 Marin County Poet Laureate

2018: CP Cavafy Prize (Poetry International), 2018 Swan Scythe Press Chapbook Award

2015: Press 53 Award for Poetry, James Hearst Poetry Prize (Jane Hirshfield judged), American Literary Review Fiction prize(Garth Greenwell judged), Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from Sewanee Writer’s Conference, MacDowell Colony Fellowship

2014: Dartmouth Poet in Residence at The Frost Place, Constance Rook CNF Prize (Malahat Review).

2013: Inductee, Blair County Arts Foundation for Literary Arts.

2010: God, Seed, Foreword Book of the Year Award and Mass Book Award finalist. All That Gorgeous Pitiless Song, Many Mountains Moving Prize, Finalist for the Paterson Prize, and nominated for the Poet’s Prize.

2009: Dark Card, Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize.

2008: Mom’s Canoe, Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize.

Personal Favorites

What I'm reading now: 
There There by Tommy Orange, Poetry Will Save Your Life by Jill Bialosky, Terrible Blooms by Melissa Stein, Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry by Dean Rader, American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin by Terrence Hayes, Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora, Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes, Goldenrod by Maggie Finch, Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry by John Murillo, Incendiary Art by Patricia Smith, Olio by Tyehimba Jess, American Sonnets for my Future Assassin by Terence Hayes, Niagra by Peter Campion, Sonnets to Frank by Diane Suess

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Prefers to work with: 
Adults
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Altoona
Raised in: 
Altoona, PA
Pennsylvania
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Dec 24, 2024