​
​Karen McPherson is a poet and translator,
a former member/editor of the Airlie Press publishing collective,
​and Professor Emerita ​of French ​at the University of Oregon.

---

​New publication summer 2024:

***


Long for This World

poems by Karen McPherson

Seven Kitchens Summer Kitchen series
chapbook


available to order NOW from

Seven Kitchens Press​


***I'll be reading from this chapbook at a poetry reading at 1p.m. on October 27, 2024
in Eugene (Gratitude Brewing, 540 E. 8th Ave.)
Copies of this limited edition chapbook will be available at the reading.
​

---

                                                                                     
                                                                             
          Up Close
                                          
             
          poems by Louise Dupré
               translation by
            Karen McPherson                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
             (Ekstasis Editions 2023) 
            ISBN: 978-1-77171-486-0                                                                
​                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                








​
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

---

​Order Up Close here from Ekstasis Editions                                                                                                                                       

Skein of Light (Airlie Press, 2014)
    2015 FINALIST
for Eric Hoffer
Grand Prize Book Award
        HONORABLE MENTION
in Poetry category



McPherson illumines scenes of the world we all share. With a deft hand for handling language, she composes sketches that draw a distant Paris near and lament the distance between two lovers. In this life that contains both living and dead, the reader sees her, "joins" her in her attempt to "haul in every trick of light / and birdsong I can net / to keep afloat." These well-crafted, meditative poems paint pictures of everyday scenes in which McPherson's words coalesce the meaning of communication: "Now every handmade shift in my color-coded closet / is trying to dress up what you mean to say."   
-- Eric Hoffer prize judge

---

From the Publisher: "The luminous poems in Karen McPherson’s Skein of Light pull and gather toward horizons of reflection. In language that repeatedly reveals what it can and cannot do, the poet maps landscapes of memory where sharp-edged questions disturb the stillness. The personal and human are deftly threaded through a natural world made legible in flights of birds, bending grasses, rock striations. And through this open work, the reader steps into a place both familiar and unknown" -- Airlie Press
​

​

​

Order Skein of Light here from Airlie Press

OrderOOrder Skein of Light here directly from Airlie Press Skein of Light here directly from Airlie Press

---