Shelley's profile

Shelley Puhak is a writer who was born and raised in Maryland. The city of Baltimore figures prominently in Puhak's poems and essays, as both subject matter and image. 

Puhak's essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Creative Nonfiction, The Iowa Review, and Salon, been given Notable mentions in Best American Essays 2016 & 2017, and been reprinted in Best American Travel Writing 2017. Puhak is also the author of two poetry collections, the more recent of which, Guinevere in Baltimore, was selected by Charles Simic for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. Released by The Waywiser Press in the US and UK in November, 2013, the collection has been called "bold," "dazzling," and "a freakishly brilliant book [that] raises the stakes for American poetry of the twenty-first century." The collection garnered both critical attention and lots of hometown love, including Puhak being named Best Poet in City Paper’s 2014 “Best of Baltimore.” Puhak's debut collection, Stalin in Aruba, was a finalist for the St. Lawrence Book Award and was awarded the Towson Prize for Literature. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Cincinnati ReviewNorth American Review, Verse Daily, and Waxwing. 

Puhak earned her MA in English Lit from the University of Delaware and her MFA in Poetry from the University of New Orleans. She has received grants and awards from DISQUIET International Literary Program, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Maryland State Arts Council. Puhak lived in Baltimore City for fifteen years in the neighborhoods of Charles Village, Hampden, and Cedmont, before moving to Catonsville, where she now lives with her husband and son.

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