Bowers, Neal

Comments from the author about writing:
All poets who write for enough years begin to long for a new voice or a new style.  The push to attain something new is usually a failure, which is why most poets move into their later years simply repeating themselves.  Hoping to avoid this dilemma, I gave up poetry at the turn of the millennium and focused exclusively on fiction (particularly the novel) and nonfiction.  I'm happy to let the poetry I wrote during the last 30 years of the 20th Century stand on its own, without further additions.

Literary awards received and date received:

• Poetry Prize (Best Book of Poetry in 2002), Society of Midland Authors, April 2003.
• First Place, Column Writing, Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors Organization,1999.
• First Place, Master Columnist, Iowa Newspaper Association, April 24, 1998.
• Union League Civic and Arts Poetry Prize from Poetry, 1996.
  
• Nominated for Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1993, and 1992.
• "Plagiarism and Silence," named a "Notable Essay of 1994" by Robert Atwan for The Best American Essays: 1995, edited by Jamaica Kincaid.
  
• Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry, 1991.
  
• First Prize for the best poem published in Yankee magazine, 1990.
• National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship ($20,000), 1989.
• First Place Poetry Prize ($1,000), Iowa Arts Council's Literary Awards Competition, 1989.
  

Book Types: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry Collection

Audience Types: Adult

Genres: Poetry, Mystery, Realistic Fiction

Are you willing to do programs for schools, libraries, or other groups? Yes

If you are willing to do programs, will you charge a fee? Yes

Author Web site URL: http://www.nealbowers.com

E-mail Address: neal@nealbowers.com

County: Story

Books By This Author

• Words for the Taking: The Hunt for a Plagiarist (2nd Edition), Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois, 2007
• Out of the South (poems)., Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2002
• Loose Ends (a novel), Random House, New York, NY, 2002
• Words For the Taking: The Hunt for a Plagiarist, W.W. Norton, New York, NY, 1997
• Night Vision (poems), Bookmark Press (University of Missouri--Kansas City), Kansas City, Missouri, 1992, 1993, 1996
• Lost in the Heartland (poems), Cedar Creek Press, Mason City, IA, 1990
• James Dickey: The Poet as Pitchman, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 1985
• The Golf Ball Diver, New Rivers Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1983
• Theodore Toethke: The Journey from I to Otherwise, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 1982