Jennifer Boyden


Jennifer Boyden is an American poet and teacher.

Life

Jennifer Boyden grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota. She attended Creighton University, and Eastern Washington University.
Boyden's first book, The Mouths of Grazing Things, was selected by Robert Pinsky to receive the Brittingham Prize in Poetry in 2010. Her poetry is primarily lyrical and imagistic, and her themes often relate to environmental issues.
In 1999, she was awarded the PEN Northwest Wilderness Writing residency and lived in an isolated, remote wilderness region near the Rogue River in southern Oregon. Her work was influenced by this wilderness immersion. A later environmental project was funded by a grant from Washington State Artist Trust Gap Grants. For this project, Boyden walked hundreds of miles and wrote essays that arose from the walks.
Boyden also collaborates with visual artists. Projects that feature her text include work with Buster Simpson and her husband, visual artist Ian Boyden, as well as creative nonfiction responding to work by artists such as photographer Peter deLory.
She currently lives in Suzhou, China where she teaches at Soochow University. She has also taught at Walla Walla Community College and at Whitman College. Eastern Washington University, The Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Her main teaching areas are creative writing, poetry, environmental literature, and experimental and cross-genre forms.

Books

The Mouths of Grazing Things. Awarded the Brittingham Prize in Poetry
Roots of Clouds, Transcendence of Stones. Essays, vignettes, and photographs regarding stones; written with geologist Terry Toedtemeier and artist Ian Boyden
Evidence of Night
Twenty Views of Cascade Head

Awards

Distinguished Alumni Award: