Rachel Guido DeVries

Bio

Rachel Guido DeVries is a Southern-Italian American, and a poet and novelist. She grew up near Paterson, New Jersey, and has lived in central New York since 1970. Her poems have appeared in magazines including Yellow Silk, Voices in Italian Americana, the Paterson Literary Review, and Blueline. New work is forthcoming in The Paterson Literary Review, and in an anthology edited by Gillan and Gillan, Italian Americans write about New Jersey (Rutgers University Press, 2003). Her most recent book of poems, Gambler’s Daughter, (Guernica Editions, 2001), was named a finalist in the 2002 Paterson Poetry Prize. Her first book of poems was published in 1978; and a second collection, How to Sing to a Dago, was published by Guernica Editions in 1996. Her novel, Tender Warriors, was published by Firebrand Books in 1986, and is in a second printing. Her poetry, fiction, and essays are anthologized in several collections, including The Italian American Reader, ed. Bill Tonelli, (Morrow, 2003), in Reflections on Italian American Women Writers, edited by Mary Ann Mannino and Justin Vitiello, (Purdue University Press, 2003); The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writing on Food and Culture (Feminist Press, 2002), Don’t Tell Mama! The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing, ed. Regina Barreca, (Penguin Books, 2002); Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writers on Learning to be American, ed. by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan, (Penguin, 1999), Fuori: Essays by Lesbian and Gay Italian Americans, (Bordhighera, 1996), The Arc of Love, An Anthology of Lesbian Love Poems, ed., Clare Coss (Scribner, 1996), Unsettling America: Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, ed. Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan, (Penguin,1994), The Voices We Carry: Italian American Women Writers, (Guernica, 1994). In 1984, Rachel Guido DeVries founded the Community Writers’ Project, in Syracuse, New York, which she directed until 1995. She is a past director of The Women’s Writers Center, formerly in Cazenovia, NY, and of the Feminist Women’s Writing Workshops. A past recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and a New York State Council for the Arts Writer-in- Residence Award, she received a Special Opportunities Stipend from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts for travel to California to read at the Sonoma County Book Fair, and the Petaluma Poetry Walk in September, 2002. She currently is a poet-in-the-schools in upstate New York, and teaches creative writing through the Humanistic Studies Center of Syracuse University, where she was awarded the Teacher of the Year award in 1993. Rachel Guido DeVries lives in Cazenovia, New York. Available for readings and/or workshops in poetry, fiction, autobiography; Mother/Daughter workshops; women’s workshops; workshops for young writers; Re/Discovering the Heart: A Workshop about Coming to Voice; Creative Writing Workshops for Public School Teachers; and more
TITLES OF BOOKS: Tender Warriors (a novel) Firebrand Books, 1986. ISBN #: 0-932379-14-1 How to Sing to a Dago (poems), Guernica Editions, 1996. ISBN#: 1-55071-028-1 Gambler’s Daughter, (poems) Guernica Editions, 2001, ISBN# : 1-55071-148-2.