English Department

Profile

Dr. Lyons’ areas of expertise include creative writing, with emphasis on poetry and literary nonfiction; studies in poetry; world literature; literature by women; and critical reading and writing. She is the author of the poetry book The Way They Say Yes Here (Hanging Loose Press), the poetry chapbook Lost Colony (Dancing Girl Press), and has published over fifty poems and literary essays in national journals such as Bellingham Review, Colorado Review, The Journal, Quarter After Eight, and Sonora Review. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry, a Nevada Arts Council Fellowship in Nonfiction, and Utah Arts Council Literary Awards in Poetry and Nonfiction.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Literature & Creative Writing, University of Utah

Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing, Colorado State University

Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Publications

BOOKS

Lost Colony (poetry chapbook), Dancing Girl Press, 2009

The Way They Say Yes Here (poetry), Hanging Loose Press, 2004

POEMS IN LITERARY JOURNALS (SELECTED)

"Because My Little Dog", Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing, forthcoming 2012

"Not a Vague Province", Blood Orange Review, Vol. 5.2, 2010

"Heartland", The Journal, Issue 33.2, 2009

"One Winter", Barrow Street, Winter 2008

"1964", Hanging Loose, Fall 2008

"My Life in Quebec", Indiana Review, Winter 2007 (Winner of Indiana Review Poetry Prize)

"We say island..." and "The lavender as much as the bumblebee..." Colorado Review, Summer 2007

"Stages of Her Soft Eclipse", Interim, Vol. 22, No. 1 & 2, 2004

Selections from Lost Colony, Barrow Street, Summer 2003

Selections from Lost Colony, Bellingham Review, Issue 53, 2003

"How a Rushing Chooses Direction", Sonora Review, No. 44, 2003

"A Map..." & "Talking with Toka", Hanging Loose, No. 81, 2002

"The Magician's Wife" & "The Bull Rider's Wife", Southwestern American Lit., Vol. 27, No. 2, 2002

"The Dyer's Wife" & "The Miner's Wife", Calyx, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2001-02

"Reports," "Retsepile," & Speaking the Language", Phoebe, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2001

"Bus Stop, Lesotho," "Acclimation," "What I Burned," Hanging Loose, No. 79, 2001

"Roala", Many Mountains Moving, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2001

"Playing Scrabble in Lesotho" & "Translation...", Artful Dodge, Vol. 40/41, 2001

"Shoes for Africa" & "No One", Florida Review, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2001

"The Grave Digger's Wife," "The Miner's Wife," & "The Sailor's Wife", Primavera, Vol. 23, 2000

"Water Stories", Sonora Review, No. 37/38, 2000

"Xai Xai to Beira", Grain, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2000

ESSAYS IN LITERARY JOURNALS

"Down into Open", DIAGRAM, 2011

"Upward as in Head Below the Heart", Interim, Vol. 28, No. 1 & 2, 2010

"Where There Is No Doctor", The Normal School, 2009 (Nominated for Pushcart Prize)

"A Sort of a Map", AGNI, 2006

"World Enough and Time", Interim, 2006

"Arbiter of Twilight", Colorado Review, Fall 2004

"Too Nice", Chattahoochee Review, Vol. 23, No. 2/3, 2003 (Named Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2004)

"The Water Problem", Turnrow, Winter 2003

"Tough/Lustrous/Resistant to Corrosion", Quarter After Eight, Vol. 7, 2001 (Finalist, Experimental Prose Contest)

"Photograph of Sossusvlei", Puerto del Sol, Vol. 35, No. 1/2, 2000 (Nominated for Pushcart Prize)

ANTHOLOGIES

Oh One Arrow, Eds. Golaski and Klane, Flim Forum Press, 2007

Voices of the City, Eds. King, Russell, Carter and Hershon, Hanging Loose Press, 2004

CRITICAL WRITING

Review of Biswamit Dwibedy's Ozalid, Colorado Review, 2011

Review of Brandon Shimoda's The Alps, Colorado Review, 2009

Symposium on poet Laura Jensen, Pleiades, 2008

Review of Ellen Urbani Hiltebrands's When I Was Elena, Peace Corps Writers Website, 2006

Review of Nick Flynn's Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Colorado Review, Spring 2005

MANUSCRIPTS

Adorable Airport (poetry), winner of 2010 Del Sol Poetry Prize

Lyric Nonfiction (book in progress)