John Hoppenthaler

Professor
252-328-5562
Erwin 304
hoppenthalerj@ecu.edu

About

John Hoppenthaler’s books of poetry are Night Wing over Metropolitan Area (2023), Domestic Garden (2015), Anticipate the Coming Reservoir (2008), and Lives of Water (2003), all with Carnegie Mellon University Press. His poetry has appeared in many journals, anthologies, and textbooks, including Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Southern Review, Christian Science Monitor, Poetry Northwest, Southeast Review, The Laurel Review, The Florida Review, West Branch, The Literary Review, Blackbird, New York Magazine, Making Poems: 40 Poems with Commentary by the Poets (State U of New York P, 2010), September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (Etruscan Press, 2002), Blooming through the Ashes: An International Anthology on Violence and the Human Spirit (Rutgers UP, 2008), Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina (U of North Carolina P, 2013), A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (U of Akron P, 2012), The Incredible Sestina Anthology (Write Bloody Publishing, 2013), The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VII: North Carolina (Texas Review Press, 2014), Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Fiction and Poetry from West Virginia (West Virginia UP, 2017), A Compendium of Kisses (Terrapin Books, 2019), You Are The River ( North Carolina Museum of Art, 2021), Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath (Press 53, 2021), The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol. IX: Virginia (Texas Review Press, 2022), and Dear Human at the Edge of Time (Paloma Press, 2023).

With Kazim, Ali, he has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine, This-World Company (U of Michigan P, 2012). His essays, interviews, and essay/reviews appear in New York Magazine, Arts & Letters, Southeast Review, The News & Observer, Chelsea, Bellingham Review, Pleiades, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poetry, The Cortland Review, Tar River Poetry, Waccamaw, North Carolina Literary Review, and Kestrel, where he served as Poetry editor for eleven years. He served as Editor for A Poetry Congeries for ten years, and he currently serves on the Advisory Board for Backbone Press, specializing in the publication and promotion of marginalized voices.

Education

  • A.A. Rockland Community College
  • B.S. State University of New York at Brockport
  • M.F.A. Virginia Commonwealth University

Research Interests

  • Creative Writing
  • Contemporary and Modern Poetry
  • American Literature

Courses Taught

  • ENGL 6865: Reading and Writing the Political Poem
  • ENGL 6865/4530: (Creative Writing as a Profession)
  • ENGL 6865: Practical Skills for Creative Writers: Literary Reviews and Interviews
  • ENGL 6840: Advanced Graduate Poetry Workshop
  • ENGL 5280: Twentieth-Century Poetry
  • ENGL 4840: Advanced Undergraduate Poetry Workshop
  • ENGL 3860: Introduction to Creative Nonfiction
  • ENGL 3850: Introduction to Fiction Writing
  • ENGL 3841: Black Woman Poets: Brooks to Trethewey
  • ENGL 3840: Introduction to Poetry Writing
  • ENGL 3410: Introduction to Poetry
  • ENGL 2815: Introduction to Creative Writing
  • ENGL 2200: Major American Authors
  • ENGL 2000: Interpreting Literature
  • ENGL 1100: Foundations of College Writing
  • ENGL 1000: Appreciating Literature

Selected Publications and Presentations

  • Night Wing over Metropolitan Area, Carnegie Mellon UP, 2023
  • “John Hoppenthaler Presents Toni Morrison’s The Source of Self-Regard.” The Chautauqua Institution, July 2020.
  • “What I Learned as Toni Morrison’s Personal Assistant.” New York Magazine (2019).
  • Lives of Water, Carnegie Mellon UP, 2003.
  • Anticipate the Coming Reservoir, Carnegie Mellon UP, 2008.
  • Jean Valentine: This-World Company, U of Michigan P, 2012.
  • Domestic Garden, Carnegie Mellon UP, 2015.

Awards

  • ECU Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Reassignment Award, April 2021.
  • ECU Five-Year Research and Creative Activity Award, February 2018.
  • 2016 Brockman-Campbell Award for the Best Volume of Poetry Published by a North Carolinian in 2015.
  • ECU Department of English Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award for 2014-2015.
  • Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the Eastern Region of North Carolina for 2010 and 2011.
  • West Virginia Division of Culture and History and West Virginia Commission on the Arts Fellowship Award for Excellence in the Field of Literature in 1998.

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