words & things beheld
elinor ann walker
cover image and all other images unless otherwise noted: ©elinor ann walker
About
Elinor Ann Walker (she/her) is a poet, writer, and editor who holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and has worked in higher education for over 30 years. Although she has published her own scholarly work, including a book in the United States Author Series (Twayne, 2000) and essays on 20th century writers and poets, she considers herself a recovering academic.
Her creative publications include poems, prose poems, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her writing has been nominated for Best American Essays, Best American Food Writing, Best Microfiction, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and the Pushcart Prize (Best of the Small Presses).
She's an amateur photographer, haphazard gardener, and mercurial star-gazer. Birds, rocks, fossils, music, etymologies, flowers, planets, shipwrecks, caves, trees, and pollinators fascinate her. She believes in the butterfly effect, is the mother of two young adult sons, does her best writing outside, and lives with her husband, two cats, and a dog. Her full length poetry manuscript and two chapbooks are now under consideration at various presses.
award nominations & other news
My first full-length poetry manuscript, Meuse is So Close to Muse, is now a three-time finalist and two-time semifinalist for publication.
- Semifinalist: 2024 Sowell Emerging Writers Prize by Terrain.org and Texas Tech University Press
- Semifinalist: 2023 Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize by The Journal and Ohio State University Press (Mad Creek Books)
- Finalist: 2023 Akron Poetry Prize
- Finalist: 2023 open reading period for Glass Lyre Press
- Finalist: 2023 open reading period for Trail to Table Press, an imprint of Wandering Aengus (shorter version, different title)
Other News:
- “Fugitive but Gorgeous,” nominated for Best Small Fictions 2024 by MacQueen’s Quinterly
- “Highway 64, Tennessee,” nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2024) by The Orchards Poetry Journal
- “Meuse,” originally published in The Southern Review, featured on Verse Daily
- “Cornbread, Cast Iron Skillets, and Confessions,” nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, and Best American Food Writing (2023) by Ruby
- “Bodies of Water,” nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2023) by Pidgeonholes
- “Summer Dresses,” nominated for Best Small Fictions 2023 by Pidgeonholes
- “Night, South Alabama, No Regrets,” nominated for Best of the Net 2021 and Best Microfiction 2020 by Whale Road Review
creative publications
2023-2024
“Imagine a Wing.” Nimrod International Journal, forthcoming, 2024.
“Refuge Sounds.” Nimrod International Journal, forthcoming, 2024.
“a cave echo: a prophet: a cento.” Pirene’s Fountain, forthcoming, 2024.
“Stay Tender.” Pirene’s Fountain, forthcoming, 2024.
“Clutch.” Swing, forthcoming, 2024.
“Crown Shyness.” Swing, forthcoming, 2024.
“Thresholds.” The Vassar Review, forthcoming.
“Haunted by Sistema Sac Actun.” West Trade Review 15 (Spring 2024).
“A Singing Bowl.” San Pedro River Review 16.1 (Spring 2024).
“Ode to the Broken.” Shō Poetry Journal 4 (Winter 2024).
“Ambiguous Undulations.” Poet Lore 118.1/2 (Summer/Fall 2023)
“Lioness.” Gyroscope Review (Crone Power Issue, Fall 2023).
“Geminids, Field Report.” Naugatuck River Review (Summer/Fall 2023).
“Memento Mori.” The Orchards Poetry Journal (Summer 2023).
“Highway 64, Tennessee.” The Orchards Poetry Journal (Summer 2023).
“Key Words.” The Southern Review (Spring 2023).
“Meuse.” The Southern Review (Spring 2023).
“Strange Beds for Bones.” Cherry Tree 9 (2023).
2020-2022
“Last Year’s Tree.” Black Bough Poetry (Christmas and Winter, 3, 2022).
“Disappearing.” FERAL: A Journal of Poetry and Art 14 (2022).
“Sestina (A Ghost Story).” Northwest Review 51.03 (Spring 2022).
“In Praise of Garlic.” The Orchards Poetry Journal (Winter 2021).
“The Same Bare Place.” The Orchards Poetry Journal (Winter 2021).
“Advent Calendar.” Black Bough Poetry (Christmas/Winter, 2, 2021).
“For Emma, Wherever We May Find Her.” Nimrod International Journal 64.2 (Spring/Summer 2021).
“Kaze No Denwa.” Nimrod International Journal 64.2 (Spring/Summer 2021).
“Stings.” Better Than Starbucks 5.5 (September 2020).
“Ruby Throat.” First Things (May 2020).
“Breakfield Road.” First Things (January 2020).
previously published in print, pre-digitally
“Trafalgar Square.” Cicada 8.1 (2005).
“Things Turn Up Dead in September.” Rosebud 25 (2002). [runner-up, 2002 William Stafford Prize for Poetry]
“Grandfather’s Baskets.” The Christian Science Monitor 94.193 (28 August 2002).
“The Barn.” Poet Lore 85.2 (1990).
“Tenth Birthday.” Poet Lore 85.2 (1990).
“Street Musician.” Parnassus Literary Journal 14.2 (1990).
|| online
2023-2024
“Compensatory Curves.” Terrain.org, forthcoming, 2024.
“Reading Cicada Wings.” Terrain.org, forthcoming, 2024.
“A Wake is a Disturbance.” Terrain.org, forthcoming, 2024.
“Where caves.” Terrain.org, forthcoming, 2024.
“Holdfast the Beautiful Changes.” The Penn Review 73 (Winter 2023).
“Honey.” West Trade Review 14 (Winter 2023).
“Deepening the Drift.” SWWIM Every Day (30 November 2023)
“Nautilus: An Ode.” Plume 146 (October 2023).
“After Cave Acoustics & Chimeras.” The Shore 19 (2023).
“I will hunger.” Mom Egg Review (MER) Online Quarterly (September 2023).
“Fugitive but Gorgeous.” MacQueen’s Quinterly 19 (15 August 2023).
“Polymorphous Pigeon in the Art Museum.” MacQueen’s Quinterly 19 (15 August 2023).
“Baby Teeth.” [republished] Fevers of the Mind (22 June 2023).
“Meuse.” [republished] Verse Daily (07 June 2023).
“Wild Violets.” Susurrus 6 (Spring 2023).
“Song for Cello & Girlhood.” Jet Fuel Review 25 (Spring 2023).
“Fugue State.” Jet Fuel Review 25 (Spring 2023).
“For the Piano in a Snowy Field Surrounded by Trees.” Bracken X (2023).
“A Cento of Serene Length.” Bracken X (2023).
“Hard Mast.” Bracken X (2023).
2021-2022
“Punctuation.” Whale Road Review 29 (Winter 2022).
“Object Impermanence.” Hayden’s Ferry Review (“Tiny Architectures,” 2022).
“Cornbread, Cast Iron Skillets, and Confessions.” Ruby 2 (Fall/Winter 2022).
“Disappearing.” FERAL: A Journal of Poetry and Art 14 (2022).
“Bodies of Water.” Pidgeonholes (September 2022).
“Summer Dresses.” Pidgeonholes (September 2022).
“This Fishing in the Air.” Gone Lawn 46 (2022).
“Undomesticated Ghosts.” Gone Lawn 46 (2022).
“August.” Willawaw Journal (Fall 2022).
“Summer Communion.” Willawaw Journal (Fall 2022).
“I want my eye to look like the world.” Wordpeace (Summer/Fall 2022).
“Nothing is Ordinary During Wartime.” Wordpeace (Summer/Fall 2022).
“Moonflower’s Ghost.” Plant-Human Quarterly 3 (2021).
“Sediment.” The Rappahannock Review 9.1 (2021).
“Homes at Night.” Juniper – A Poetry Journal 5.2 (Fall 2021).
2020
“Night, South Alabama, No Regrets.” Whale Road Review 21 (Winter 2020).
“Orionids, Field Report.” Rat’s Ass Review (Winter 2020).
“Still Life.” The Ekphrastic Review (October 2020).
“Don’t let me forget to tell you.” Shot Glass Journal 32 (September 2020).
“Stings.” [republished] Better Than Starbucks (September 2020).
“Saguaro.” Tiny Seed Literary Journal (25 August 2020).
“Driving Rain.” perhappened mag (7 July 2020).
“Synchronicity.” The New Verse News (6 July 2020).
“Birthright.” Mezzo Cammin 15.1 (June 2020).
“Stings.” Mezzo Cammin 15.1 (June 2020).
“Ruby Throat.” First Things (1 May, 2020).
“Breakfield Road.” First Things (1 January 2020).
|| anthologies
“Fugue State,” “Object Impermanence.” Fantastic, Imaginary Creatures: An Anthology of Contemporary Prose Poems. Ed. Gerry LaFemina. Madville Publishing, Spring 2024, forthcoming.
“Disappearing.” Facing Goodbye. Eds. Jane Hanson and Mirjam Mahler. Wee Sparrow Poetry Press, forthcoming.
“In Praise of Garlic.” Savor: Poems of the Tongue. Friendly City Books, Spring 2024, forthcoming.
“Dizzy.” Dark Confessions. Ed. Matthew M. C. Smith, Kari Flickinger, Ranjabali Chaudhuri, Ness Owen. Black Bough Poetry, 2021.
“Ask for the Old Paths.” Mizmor Anthology, 2020 Poetry Edition. Poetica Publishing, 2020.
“Baby Teeth,” “My Father Said.” Shut Down Strangers and Hot Rod Angels. Bone & Ink Press, 2019.
“Stories.” Flash Glass Anthology, IV. Glassboro, N. J.: Glassworks, 2018.
“Untitled.” Stone Renga. Ed. Tom Murphy and Alan Berecka. Village Brooks Press, 2017.
|| previous online publications
“Stories.” Glassworks (1 September, 2018).
“On Hoping There’s More Than Meets the Eye.” Halfway Down the Stairs (1 June 2018).
“What Could Make Them Glad?” Halfway Down the Stairs (1 June 2018).
“Meg Tries to Explain.” NonBinary Review: The Zoetic Press Journal of Literature 17 (2018).
“38 Weeks.” Mezzo Cammin 6.1 (June 2011).
“Bluff.” Mezzo Cammin 6.1 (June 2011).
“Grass Widow and Other Metaphors.” Soundzine 13 (2011).
unless otherwise noted, all images © elinor ann walker
selected academic publications
chapters in books
journal articles
“Josephine Humphreys.” The History of Southern Women’s Literature. Ed. Mary L. Weaks and Carolyn Perry. Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
“Dizzying Possibilities, Plots and Endings: Girlhood in Jill McCorkle’s Ferris Beach.” The Girl: Constructions of Girlhood in Contemporary Fiction by Women. Ed. Ruth O. Saxton. St. Martin’s Press, 1998. .
“Rereading Allison Huger: Making Silence Signify in Walker Percy’s The Second Coming.” Walker Percy’s Feminine Characters. Ed. Lewis Lawson and Elzbieta Oleksy. Whitston Publishing Company, 1995.
“Carolyn Kizer,” “Mona Van Duyn,” “Elinor Wylie.” The Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States. Ed. Linda Wagner-Martin and Cathy Davidson. Oxford University Press, 1995.
“Cold Parody and Subtle Historian: Teasing Walker Percy out of Josephine Humphreys’s The Fireman’s Fair.” The Southern Literary Journal XXXI.1 (Fall 1998): 51-69.
“Tradition and Innovation: Southern Women Writers.” The Southern Literary Journal XXVIII.1 (Fall 1995): 149-154.
“‘Go With What is Most Terrifying’: Re-inventing Domestic Space in Josephine Humphreys’s Dreams of Sleep.” Special Issue of Studies in the Literary Imagination, ed. Victor A. Kramer. XXVII.2 (Fall 1994): 87-104.
“Josephine Humphreys’s Rich in Love: Redefining Southern Fiction.” Mississippi Quarterly XLVII.2 (Spring 1994): 301-315.
“Celebrating Voice and Self in Jill McCorkle’s Crash Diet.” Notes on Contemporary Literature 23.1 (January 1993): 11-12.
Poem of the Month
W. S. Merwin