Matthew Rohrer

Bio
Reviews
Links
Audio/Video
Current Readings

Matthew Rohrer is the author of Destroyer and Preserver (Wave Books, 2011), A Plate of Chicken (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Rise Up (Wave Books, 2007) and A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press, 2002), and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered and The Next Big Thing. His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at NYU.
Reviews
Even through the clamor of war, garbage trucks, stolen cars, and crying babies, Rohrer maintains an alluring tranquility, a Taoist chill to temper a casualness that might otherwise get flagged as too hip. Li Po and Rumi drink jugs of wine, “Wu Wei" presides calmly over the lovely closing poem that takes his name, and clouds drift from one poem to the next. —Michael Brodeur, The Boston Globe

Rohrer’s frequently beautiful, brief poems are rooted in specific images that initially seem unrelated—but which ultimately form a unity as meditations on how the ordinary distractions of everyday life can be seen as the source for almost everything important in life. —Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

Rohrer writes poems that crackle and sputter, often branching toward new meaning and emotion within the span of a single line. —Publishers Weekly

Matthew Rohrer casually transforms the mundane substances of the everyday into spirited occasions of imaginative charm. —Nick Sturm, Ron Slate's On the Seawall

Reviews of books by Matthew Rohrer

Destroyer and Preserver

Rise Up

A Green Light

Satellite
Poems
- “After Catullus” (on Poets.org)
- “Poem for Starlings” (in The Morning News)
- “[Do you get any reception here?]” (in The The Poetry)
- “The Emperor” (on Poets.org)
- “Pavilion of Leaves” (on Poets.org)
- “Enough with Abstraction” (in La Petite Zine)
- “Epithalamium” (in Poetrying)
- Two poems (in notnostrums)
- “From Mars” (in Verse Daily)
- “The Terrorists” (in paperbag)
- Three poems (in Loaded Bicycle)
- Two poems (in Splash of Red)

Interviews
- Andrew-vs-Books, with Andrew James Weatherhead
- Bookslut, with Ruth Tobias
- BOMBlog, with Susie Deford
- Here Comes Everybody
- reader of depressing books, with Tao Lin
- Stop Smiling, with Joel Craig
- Matthew Rohrer and Anthony McCann interview each other at Studio One
- Conversation with Matthew Rohrer, Matthew Zapruder, Hannah Gamble, Zachary Schomburg, and Heather Christie featured in Gulf Coast

Articles
- On Electric Light Orchestra

On collaborations with Joshua Beckman
- Jordan Davis, The Village Voice
- Nina MacLaughin, The Boston Pheonix
- Interview with Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer in Painted Bride Quarterly
- Three collaborative poems (in Octopus)
- Matthew Rohrer’s PennSound audio archive page
- Matthew Rohrer’s recorded readings at the Knox Writers' House
- Matthew Rohrer and Joshua Beckman’s collaborative reading at the Museum of Modern Artin NYC, Spring 2010
- A discussion of Rohrer’s poems, the imagination, and the Superbowl at The Poetry Foundation
- Matthew Rohrer’s Griffin Poetry Prize Speech:

- Opening the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize Awards:
No readings are scheduled at this time.

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