PAISLEY REKDAL portrait
  • Distinguished Professor, English
  • Distinguished Professor, English

Professional Service

  • Auburn University . Judge for Southern Humanities Review "Witness" Poetry Prize. 09/2020 - present
  • Smith College. Judge for undergraduate poetry prize. 09/2020 - present
  • 92nd Street Y. Judge for "Discovery" Poetry Award. 03/2020 - present
  • Academy of American Poets . Judge for Amazon Literary Partnership and the Academy of American Poets Poetry Fund . 03/2020 - present
  • Utah Division of Arts and Museums. Poet Laureate Position. Judging for Poetry Out Loud, school workshops for Poetry Out Loud across the state. K-12 teacher training offered for poetry/CW pedagogy. 01/2019 - present
  • Utah Arts Council, Poet Laureate Position. Judging for Poetry Out Loud, school workshops for Poetry Out Loud. 01/2018 - 12/31/2018
  • Utah Division of Arts and Museums. Utah Poet Laureate. 06/2017 - present

Internal Service

  • Anti-Racism Committee. Chair, 04/2020 - present. Department service.
  • Graduate Committee. member, 07/2014 - 07/2017. Department service.
  • Director of Creative Writing . 07/01/2014 - 07/2017. Department service.

Outreach

  • As Utah's poet laureate, I continue to teach poetry writing workshops, anti-racism writing workshops, K-12 creative writing pedagogy classes. I also organize and run the annual (and now hybrid) Utah Poetry Festival . 01/2020 - present. Hours Served: 60 01/2020 - present. Hours Served: --. 01/2021 - 05/2022
  • As Utah's poet laureate, I teach poetry writing workshops, anti-racism writing workshops, K-12 creative writing pedagogy, continuation of online Utah Poetry Festival, virtual Beehive Poetry Month and National Poetry Month activities: all on Zoom. 01/2019 - present. Hours Served: 60. 01/2020 - present
  • Teaching poetry writing workshops, K-12 creative writing pedagogy, judging Poetry Out Loud competitions at schools around the valley, creation of Utah Poetry Festival and Beehive Poetry Month activities. 01/2019 - present
  • Teaching creative writing at Utah International Charter School, South Salt Lake. 12/12/2017 - 12/12/2017
  • Poetry Out Loud Judge, Rose Park Elementary, 2 hours. 01/20/2016 - 01/20/2016

Honors & Awards

  • Mayor's Artist Award . Salt Lake City Arts Council, 06/2021
  • Washington State Book Award for Nightingale. Washington State Center for the Book, 10/2020
  • "Four Marys" selected for reprint in Best American Poetry 2019. 12/2019
  • Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellowship: $100,000 to help me complete Mapping Literary Utah, run the Utah Poetry festival, and the Beehive Poetry Month. Academy of American Poets, 06/2019
  • Narrative Magazine Prize: $4,000 for best poems published in the magazine during calendar year. 11/2018
  • Poet Laureate, Utah . 05/2017
  • Civitella Ranieri Residency/Fellowship. Civitella Ranieri, 05/2017
  • Best American Poetry selection, 2016 for publication in 2017. Best American Poetry, 01/10/2017
  • Imaginary Vessels chosen as a Lannan Literary Selection. Lannan Foundation, 11/08/2016
  • AWP Nonfiction Prize. AWP, 06/2016
  • Guggenheim Fellowship. 04/2014
  • Pushcart Prize. 05/2013
  • Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize, Finalist. 02/2013
  • UNT Rainer Maria Rilke Poetry Award. 02/2013
  • Best American Poetry selection, 2013 . 12/2012
  • Best American Poetry selection, 2012. 12/2011
  • Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship. Amy Lowell Trust, 02/11/2011
  • Pushcart Prize. 12/2010
  • Writing Residency, Pushcart Prize Fellow. Jentel Foundation, 11/2010
  • Tanner Humanities Fellowship. Tanner Humanities Center, 12/2009
  • Literature Fellowship. Utah Arts Council, 12/2007
  • Literature Fellowship. National Endowment for the Arts, 12/2003
  • Literature Fellowship. Wyoming Arts Council, 12/2002

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