Leila Wilson
BA, 1994, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR; MFA, 1998, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; MA, 2003, University of Chicago. Book: The Hundred Grasses (Milkweed Editions, 2013). Journal Publications (Poetry): American Letters and Commentary, Denver Quarterly, Poetry, A Public Space, Court Green, Delmar, The Canary, CutBank, Iowa Review. Reviews: Chicago Review, Indiana Review. Awards: Friends of Literature Prize, Poetry Foundation. Finalist, Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
In her poems, Wilson often focuses on instances when familiar spaces exert themselves beyond recognition, when they seem estranged and must then be reckoned with and renegotiated. Open spaces—particularly the expanses of rural spaces but also yards, rooms, floors, and palms—have challenged Wilson to locate the struggle between foreground and background in whatever span she is examining. Following links of sound as a way of opening up connections, Wilson engages a process of embedding herself in the musicality of language and paying close attention to the breath of a line.
CPC Readings
Poetry by Leila Wilson
Water meanders
to prairie potholes,
throws cordgrass
into switchbacks
as we push past
bramble and scare
a whistling wheel
of geese into air.
Some land lives
so water can comb
it into grids. This
is why lowlands
tilt still toward
the sea. This so