Heather Derr-Smith

BOOK PUBLICATIONS

Outskirts. University of Akron Press, March 2022.

Thrust. Winner of the 2016 Lexi Rudnitsky Prize. Persea Books, 2017.

Tongue Screw. Spark Wheel Press, 2016.

The Bride Minaret. Editor’s Choice Award. University of Akron Press, 2008.

Each End of the World. Editor’s Choice Award. Main Street Rag Press, 2005.

EDUCATION

MFA in Poetry Writing, Iowa Writers’ Workshop, University of Iowa, 1997.
Workshops with Mark Doty, Jorie Graham, James Galvin, Tom Sleigh, and Marvin Bell.
Research Assistant to Mark Doty and Frank Conroy.

B.A. in Art History, University of Virginia, 1995.
Poetry workshops with Rita Dove, Charles Wright, and Greg Orr.

MSW Coursework in Social Work:
Global Aging; Psychology of Aging; Human Behavior and the Social Environment; Diversity and Oppression; Trauma and Resilience; Nonprofit Management I; Nonprofit Management II; Grant Writing; Social Work Practice Lab; Human Sexuality; Diversity and Society; Sexuality in the United States; Disability Policy and ADA.

iTeach:
Learning Environments; Learner Development; Planning for Instruction and Assessment; Literacy; 21st Century Instruction; Learner Differences and Adaptations for Students with Disabilities; and Diverse Populations.

TEACHING

English Teacher, Staunton High School
English 10 Honors, English 10, English 9 Honors, Creative Writing, Advanced Creative Writing, and Summer ESL.

Adjunct Professor / Visiting Poet, Grand View University
Introduction to Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing, Summer 2010–2014.

Assistant Professor / Visiting Poet, Graduate Faculty, Iowa State University
Creative Writing and the Environment MFA Program; Graduate Poetry Workshops, Spring 2009–2014.

Lecturer, Iowa State University
Introduction to Literature 201 and Business Communication 302, Spring 2010.

Lecturer, English Department, Iowa State University
Composition 150 and 250, Fall 2008–2014.

Lecturer, English Department, Grand View University
Composition 100, Composition 100–Learning Community, and Reading 100, Fall 2009–2014.

Adjunct Professor, English Department, Des Moines Area Community College
Composition 105 and 110, Fall 2008–Spring 2010.

Adjunct Professor, English Department, Kirkwood Community College
Composition 150, Composition 250, and all genres of Creative Writing, Fall 2005–Spring 2008.

EDITING

Palette Poetry, Poetry Editor, 2015–2025.

Frontier Poetry, Poetry Editor, 2015–2025.

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

“Ghost,” “Bite,” and “At the Crossing.” The Literary Review, Granary, Vol. 62, Issue 2.

“Heathens,” “Advent,” “May We Meet No Line a Boundary,” and “American Ready Cut System Houses.” Academy of American Poets, Poets.org.

“Hazel Run,” “Catherine’s Furnace,” “The Quarry,” “XXX,” and “You Got to Pray to the Lord When You See Those Flying Saucers.” The Missouri Review, February 7, 2017.

“Gouge.” Split This Rock, December 15, 2017.

“Iraqi Style Fish Shop, Damascus.” Split This Rock, October 14, 2016.

“Traitor.” Verse Daily, December 26, 2018.

“Uxor Pilate,” “Inauguration,” and “Portrait of a Courtesan.” Quarterly West, No. 108, Salvage/Selvage, 2019.

“Epigraph,” “Epoch,” and “Terror Praesentis.” Empty Mirror, November 30, 2018.

“Glass Jaw.” Vandal Poem of the Day, March 9, 2018.

“I-95.” Vandal Poem of the Day, February 8, 2018.

“The Quarry.” Vandal Poem of the Day, February 6, 2018.

“Hazel Run.” Vandal Poem of the Day, February 2, 2018.

“Catherine’s Furnace.” Vandal Poem of the Day, November 17, 2017.

“Hideout.” Vandal Poem of the Day, October 24, 2017.

“Interrogation V,” “Interrogation VI,” and “Interrogation X.” Diode, Vol. 3, No. 1, Fall 2009.

“Thrown, Sarajevo.” Tweetspeak Poetry, May 17, 2016.

“Joan.” Glass Poetry, Poets Resist, November 6, 2018.

“Runaways.” The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed, Sundress, July 6, 2016.

“Heathens,” “Rhododendron,” and “Hundred Year Flood.” Center for Mennonite Writing, Vol. 6, 2014.

“Three Wolves, December Storms, Boundary Waters.” Glass Poetry, Vol. 4, Issue 1.

“Miss World.” Rivet Journal, 2017.

“Sleepers.” The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 62, No. 1, Spring 2021.

“Black Bread,” “Instruction Manual, Baltic,” “Iftar with the Stooges, Sarajevo,” and “In the First Hour of the War We Didn’t Believe It Was a War.” Another Chicago Magazine, January 12, 2021.

READINGS

New Dominion Bookstore, with Amy Woolard, December 16, 2018.

Sunday Kind of Love, Busboys and Poets, Washington, DC, December 17, 2017.

Watershed Reading, Arts and Lit Lab, with Oliver Baez Bendorf and Crystal S. Gibbons, Madison, Wisconsin, October 21, 2017.

Live from Prairie Lights, with Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Iowa City, August 31, 2018.

Water Street Bookstore, with Tom Simpson, “The Art of Survival: Trauma Recovery and Witness,” Exeter, New Hampshire, May 26, 2016.

Trident Café, with Beth Woodcome Platow, Lynne Potts, and Erica Charis, Boston, Massachusetts, February 1, 2018.

Jamaica Plain Public Library, with Erica Charis-Molling, Francis Donovan, and Sonja Johnason, February 3, 2018.

WORKSHOPS

Guest Poet/Teacher, U.S. Embassy Grant, Tuzla University and American Corners, Zenica, Bihać, Sarajevo, and Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2018–2019.

Critical Thinking Workshops: Curriculum development, TPO Foundation, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Guest Poet/Teacher, U.S. Embassy American Corners, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, 2018. Workshops with internally displaced persons (IDPs) and humanitarian aid delivery to Prometei Rehabilitation Center.

Guest Poet/Teacher, Human Rights, U.S. Embassy Grant, Tallinn and Narva, Estonia, 2018.

Cuvaj se: Humanitarian aid delivery, Budapest, Hungary, during the migrant crisis at Keleti Train Station, September 2015.

Guest Poet/Teacher, International University of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Four-city reading and workshop tour, including University of Tuzla, University of Zenica, University of Travnik, University of Sarajevo, British Council, BuyBook Bookstore, CornerBooks Bookstore, Burch University, and Sarajevo Institute of Science and Technology, November 20–26, 2009.

CONFERENCES

AWP Offsite Reading, with Spark Wheel Press, Sugar House Review, and Saltfront poets Brandon Courtney, F. Douglas Brown, Kylan Rice, and Danielle Dubrasky, R Bar, Los Angeles, 2016.

AWP Reading, CSU Poetry Center and University of Akron Press Poetry Reading, Paris on the Platte Café & Bar, Denver.

AWP Panel, “Teaching Creative Writing Abroad: Translanguaging, Trauma, and Transformation,” with Tara Skurtu, Mariya Dekute, Ariella Katz, and Caitlin E. Krause, 2020.

AWP Panel, “Two Jews, a Catholic, a Buddhist, a Mennonite Sufi Shaman, and a _________ Walk into an AWP Panel: Geography’s Influence on Writers Writing Religion and Culture,” with Eric Wasserman, Ira Sukrungruang, Heather Derr-Smith, Bich Minh Nguyen, and Mary Biddinger, 2009.

AWP Panel, “Poetry of Protest,” with Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Randall Mann, and Heather Derr-Smith, 2019.

Poetry Unbound Panel, “Boxing and Poetry,” with Adrian Matejka and Gabrielle Calvocoressi, 2019.

Poetry Unbound Reading, Thrust, Persea Books, 2019.

Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, 2018 Spring Conference Reading and Panel with Tiana Clark.

INTERVIEWS AND REVIEWS

Missouri Review Unbound Book Festival Podcast, May 10, 2018.

“Heather Derr-Smith, Desire, and the Duende.” Kenyon Review, 2018. Interview/review by Eileen G’Sell.

“Heather Derr-Smith’s Thrust.” The Iowa Review, 2018. Review by Thomas Simpson.

“Review of Tongue Screw by Heather Derr-Smith.” Tinderbox Poetry Journal, 2017. Review by Nicelle Davis.

“Make Love Out of the Kick and the Punch: A Review of Heather Derr-Smith’s Thrust.” Tupelo Quarterly, 2018. Review by Erin Adair Hodges.

“There’s Blood on Your Neck from My Lips: A Review of Heather Derr-Smith’s Thrust.” The Adroit Journal, 2019. Review by Luiza Flynn Goodlet.

“A Review of Tongue Screw by Heather Derr-Smith.” Compulsive Reader, 2016. Review by Brian Burmeister.

“Tongue Screw by Heather Derr-Smith.” Cleaver Magazine. Review by Johnny Payne.

“Victorious: Thrust by Heather Derr-Smith.” Whale Road Review, Issue 17. Review by Michele Bombardier.

Rockshop Interview, Des Moines, 2016.

The Fem, Featured Friday: “Meet Heather Derr-Smith,” 2016.

HONORS

Winner, Cavafy Prize, Poetry International, for “Boy,” “Aachen,” and “Final Advent,” 2021.

Semi-Finalist, Trio House Press, 2021.

Finalist, Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry.

The Bride Minaret, Editor’s Choice Award, University of Akron Press, 2008.

Each End of the World, Editor’s Choice Award, Main Street Rag Press, 2005.

Thrust, Winner of the 2016 Lexi Rudnitsky Prize, Persea Books, 2017.

Prairie Lights Books Poetry Prize, Judge Charles Wright, 1997.

Ruth Lily and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, Finalist/Nominee from the University of Virginia, 1995.

GRANTS

State Department Cultural Grant, 2018.

Iowa State University Travel Grant, 2010.

National Endowment for the Arts / Iowa Arts Council Mini Grant, 2010.

RESIDENCIES

Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, 2014.

OTHER EMPLOYMENT

Social Worker, Family Solutions, Spotsylvania County Schools, January 2022–May 2023.

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE — SELECTED

Cuvaj se / Take Care: Founder and Director, NGO supporting writers and communities in conflict zones and post-conflict recovery areas; supporting democracy movements through human rights, LGBTQ, and critical-thinking workshops; and delivering humanitarian aid on the ground in Syria, Bosnia, and Ukraine, 1994–present.

World Central Kitchen: Server, Przemyśl, Poland, Summer 2022.

Yarmouk Refugee Camp, Damascus, Syria: Poetry workshops, humanitarian aid delivery, research, and interviews, 2007.

Presbyterian Disaster Service: Hurricane Katrina Service Coordinator, Gulfport, Mississippi, Spring 2006.

Presbyterian Border Services: Service Coordinator, Juárez, Mexico, Spring 2005.

Mennonite Central Committee, Sharing With Appalachian People (SWAP): Leader, Summer 1999.

English Teacher, Gašinci Refugee Camp, Gašinci, Croatia; humanitarian aid delivery, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Summer 1994.