Aaron Belz
Early life and education
Belz grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri and attended schools including Westminster Christian Academy, the Stony Brook School and Framlingham College. He was awarded a Maclellan Foundation Scholarship to attend Covenant College in Georgia in 1990, and graduated with a double major in English and History in 1993. Belz was enrolled in the Creative Writing program at New York University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.[3][4][5] In 2007, he received a Ph.D. in English at Saint Louis University.[6]
Career
In 2003 Belz founded Observable Readings, a poetry series and imprint in St. Louis.[7]
Belz published his first book of poetry, The Bird Hoverer, in 2007.[8] He then began teaching English and Creative Writing at Fontbonne University, and later at Saint Louis University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and Providence Christian College.
He published a second book, Lovely, Raspberry: Poems, in 2010.[9] In 2013, he was in the news after many media outlets picked up a story about a Craigslist ad he placed to sell custom poems.[10][11][12]
Belz's poetry often contains elements of humor; in 2013 he performed readings at The Comedy Club and a writers' conference.[13]
In 2013, Belz opened up Hillsborough Bicycle, a bicycle repair shop, with his son Eli in Hillsborough, North Carolina.[14]
In 2014 Belz was teaching English at Durham Technical Community College in Durham, North Carolina.[15] That year he published his third book, Glitter Bomb: Poems.[16]
Belz's poetry has appeared in Fence, Exquisite Corpse, The Atlantic and The Washington Post, and his essays and reviews have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Bibliography
- The Bird Hoverer, BlazeVOX Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1934289273[17]
- Lovely, Raspberry: Poems, Persea, 2010. ISBN 978-0892553594[18]
- Glitter Bomb: Poems, Persea, 2014. ISBN 978-0892554317[19]
- Soft Launch: Poems, Persea, 2019. ISBN 978-0892555024[20]
References
- "Hillsborough-area poets take a turn for the verse". News Observer, By Julia Sendor.
- Literary Magazine Review. Kansas State University Writers Society. 2003. p. 10.
- Howe, Brian. "The elusive Aaron Belz, lauded poet, public misanthrope and private seeker". Indyweek.com.
- "Aaron Belz on Poetry and His Eventual Book Balls or Yo, Chechnya". Huffington Post, 11/21/2011.
- "Interview With Poet Aaron Belz". Writer's Digest. By: Robert Lee Brewer | February 8, 2011.
- "Poets and Poems: Aaron Belz and “Glitter Bomb”". TweetSpeak. By Glynn Young
- "Observable Readings Kicks Off its Eleventh Season With New Curators, and a New Home". Stlmag.com. 9 September 2013.
- "Poetry Microreview: The Bird Hoverer". Tony Trigilio September 01, 2007, Boston Review.
- "Review: Lovely, Raspberry" St. Louis Magazine, Julie Dill January 10, 2011
- "Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Poem on Craigslist?". Micah Mattix Aug 14, 2013 The Atlantic.
- "Aaron Belz Poet for Hire" KDHX.org Archived 2014-03-09 at the Wayback Machine Archived at the Wayback Machine.
- "Aaron Belz: Poet for Hire on Craigslist". Writer's Digest, By: Robert Lee Brewer | August 15, 2013
- "Cartographer of Word Galaxies: An Interview with Aaron Belz" Archived 2013-09-26 at the Wayback Machine The Believer. September 24, 2013. Susan Lerner
- "'The slipperiness of Language': Poems don't earn a living, but poets say they don't care (with video, audio)". March 28th, 2014 by Barry Courter Chattanooga Times-Free Press.
- "Microreview: Aaron Belz, Glitter Bomb". Boston Review, Andrew Ridker, December 04, 2014
- "Aaron Belz". Interview by Luke Irwin, PiF Magazine, September 1, 2011
- Labbe, Jason (1 November 2010). "Lovely, Raspberry". Boston Review.
- "Suspicious Packages The poetry of Aaron Belz". Books and Culture, November/December 2014. Michael Robbins.
- " Strange and Holy and Rough: On Soft Launch, Aaron Belz's latest book of poems ". The Curator, December 18, 2019. Aarik Danielson.
External links
- Official website
- Poems
- YouTube channel
- "Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine". University of Iowa Press