Penny Harter

Bio

Penny Harter has published sixteen books of poems, six in the last decade. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and magazines worldwide, and her autobiographical essay appears in Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Volume 28 (1998) as well as in Contemporary Authors, Volume 172 (1999). Her essays on the teaching of writing and related subjects have appeared in books ranging from The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing, The Teachers & Writers Guide to William Carlos Williams, The Teachers and Writers Guide to Classic American Literature (all published by Teachers & Writers, Inc., New York), to An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of their Art edited by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes (University of Michigan, 2002). She has won awards from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the Poetry Society of America. Most recently, John A. Murray, editor of American Nature Writing 2002 (Fulcrum Publishers), named Harter the first recipient of the William O. Douglas Nature Writing Award. She is well known for eliciting nature writing but also offers a broad range of workshops in writing poetry. After living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for over a decade, she and her late husband, poet and translator Bill Higginson, moved back to New Jersey to be closer to family. A range of her work may be seen at her web site: www.2hweb.net/penhart. Penny Harter can also work as a visiting children’s book author. Her hardcover illustrated children’s alphabestiary, “The Beastie Book” came out in December 2009. Penny Harter’s blog is found at: http://penhart.wordpress.com/.