Recent Publications
forthcoming in: Rogue Agent, Reverie, -ette Review, and On the Seawall
"Gray Matter" in The Ocean State Review, vol. 13, no. 1, summer 2024
"Distal"in Atlanta Review, spring/summer 2024
"Swimming Lessons" in Heimat Review, issue 6, April 15, 2024
"Extinction Studies" in Midway Journal, vol. 17 issue 1, January 2023
"To the Quick"in Southern Humanities Review, vol. 55 No 3&4, December 2022
"Ampersand"in Roanoke Review, December 2022
"I Shelter the Predator" and "Simultaneous Translation at the Peace Accords" in The Dodge,
October 8, 2022
"Inoculations" in The Ocotillo Review, vol. 6.2, summer 2022
"Surely the shore" and "On the Loss of a Friend" in december, vol. 33.1, summer 2022
"I Saw No Wounds" in Pembroke Magazine, issue 54, summer 2022
"Thrombosis" [nominated for Best of the Net] in Reservoir Road Literary Review, issue 7, winter 2022
"Sweet Collusion" in Salamander, issue 53, winter 2022
"Penny Bun" in The Worcester Review, fall 2021 vol. XLII, nos. 1&2
"Long for this world" in The Women's Review of Books (poetry pages
curated by Katha Pollitt), 38.6, fall 2021
"The Women of My Midnight Choir" in Fireweed: Poetry of Oregon, summer 2021 (issue 1)
"Storm" [nominated for Pushcart Prize] in the winnow, winter 2021 (3:7)
"Fault Lines" in Turtle Island Quarterly, no. 20, winter/spring 2021
"Praising the Untranslatable" in California Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 4, winter 2020
"Awake" in Innisfree Poetry Journal, fall 2020
"Many Things Come Back" [nominated for Pushcart Prize] in
Naugatuck River Review, issue 24 summer/fall 2020
"Memory of Thread" and "Ode to the Page" in Midwest Quarterly, fall 2020
"Meeting the Sphinx" and "Return to Summer Lake" bilingual publication
with translations into French by Louise Dupré in Mïtra: Revue d'art et
de littérature, vol. 4, automne 2020
"Fontanel," "Cryosphere," "How to Get There from Here," and "Gatherings"
bilingual publication with translations into French by Louise Dupré
in Mïtra: Revue d'art et de littérature, vol. 3, automne 2019
"Silk" in Claw & Blossom June 2019
"Translating the Poem" in Cloudbank 13, 2019
"Comma" in Comstock Review 33.1, spr/sum 2019
2015-2018 publications:
"Aphasia" in Chicago Quarterly Review #27, fall 2018
"Blood Moon" in The Night's Magician: Poems about the Moon,
Negative Capability Press, September 2018
"Introducing the Poetry of Louise Dupré" (Translation feature:
preface & 5 translated poems), Cincinnati Review, 15.1,
summer 2018
"You Are the Valley" in Cloudbank 12, 2018
"Resident Merlin" in Potomac Review 62, spring 2018
"Air Quality Advisory" in Cirque, winter 2018
"Because Sad"; "Summer Vagaries"; "Visiting the Stones"; "The
Gravity of Ground"; "Return to Summer Lake" in
Peacock Journal, fall 2017
"Cedar Waxwing" [nominated for Pushcart Prize] and "Belted
Kingfisher" in Bird’s Thumb, October 2016
"Écheveau de lumière" (eight poems from Skein of Light
translated into French by Louise Dupré). Les écrits 145,
November 2015
May 2015: Karen McPherson's poem "Provenance" wins First Place in the Poet's Choice category of the Oregon Poetry Association spring 2015 contest. The poem was published in the OPA's annual anthology Verseweavers issue 20.
"Distal"in Atlanta Review, spring/summer 2024
"Swimming Lessons" in Heimat Review, issue 6, April 15, 2024
"Extinction Studies" in Midway Journal, vol. 17 issue 1, January 2023
"To the Quick"in Southern Humanities Review, vol. 55 No 3&4, December 2022
"Ampersand"in Roanoke Review, December 2022
"I Shelter the Predator" and "Simultaneous Translation at the Peace Accords" in The Dodge,
October 8, 2022
"Inoculations" in The Ocotillo Review, vol. 6.2, summer 2022
"Surely the shore" and "On the Loss of a Friend" in december, vol. 33.1, summer 2022
"I Saw No Wounds" in Pembroke Magazine, issue 54, summer 2022
"Thrombosis" [nominated for Best of the Net] in Reservoir Road Literary Review, issue 7, winter 2022
"Sweet Collusion" in Salamander, issue 53, winter 2022
"Penny Bun" in The Worcester Review, fall 2021 vol. XLII, nos. 1&2
"Long for this world" in The Women's Review of Books (poetry pages
curated by Katha Pollitt), 38.6, fall 2021
"The Women of My Midnight Choir" in Fireweed: Poetry of Oregon, summer 2021 (issue 1)
"Storm" [nominated for Pushcart Prize] in the winnow, winter 2021 (3:7)
"Fault Lines" in Turtle Island Quarterly, no. 20, winter/spring 2021
"Praising the Untranslatable" in California Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 4, winter 2020
"Awake" in Innisfree Poetry Journal, fall 2020
"Many Things Come Back" [nominated for Pushcart Prize] in
Naugatuck River Review, issue 24 summer/fall 2020
"Memory of Thread" and "Ode to the Page" in Midwest Quarterly, fall 2020
"Meeting the Sphinx" and "Return to Summer Lake" bilingual publication
with translations into French by Louise Dupré in Mïtra: Revue d'art et
de littérature, vol. 4, automne 2020
"Fontanel," "Cryosphere," "How to Get There from Here," and "Gatherings"
bilingual publication with translations into French by Louise Dupré
in Mïtra: Revue d'art et de littérature, vol. 3, automne 2019
"Silk" in Claw & Blossom June 2019
"Translating the Poem" in Cloudbank 13, 2019
"Comma" in Comstock Review 33.1, spr/sum 2019
2015-2018 publications:
"Aphasia" in Chicago Quarterly Review #27, fall 2018
"Blood Moon" in The Night's Magician: Poems about the Moon,
Negative Capability Press, September 2018
"Introducing the Poetry of Louise Dupré" (Translation feature:
preface & 5 translated poems), Cincinnati Review, 15.1,
summer 2018
"You Are the Valley" in Cloudbank 12, 2018
"Resident Merlin" in Potomac Review 62, spring 2018
"Air Quality Advisory" in Cirque, winter 2018
"Because Sad"; "Summer Vagaries"; "Visiting the Stones"; "The
Gravity of Ground"; "Return to Summer Lake" in
Peacock Journal, fall 2017
"Cedar Waxwing" [nominated for Pushcart Prize] and "Belted
Kingfisher" in Bird’s Thumb, October 2016
"Écheveau de lumière" (eight poems from Skein of Light
translated into French by Louise Dupré). Les écrits 145,
November 2015
May 2015: Karen McPherson's poem "Provenance" wins First Place in the Poet's Choice category of the Oregon Poetry Association spring 2015 contest. The poem was published in the OPA's annual anthology Verseweavers issue 20.
Le Bateau-atelier (1874)
[The Studio Boat].
Claude Monet.
Kröller-Müller Museum.
[photo of a print of the painting]
Comments by contest judge Maxine Scates:
I think long poems are hard to write so my primary criteria in judging these poems was how well each of these poets held the elements of the poem together. Since long poems are often narratives, as these were, the poet must move the narrative forward while also maintaining a nuanced imagistic thread throughout, a kind of echoing that lets you both remember where you’ve been but which also satisfyingly foreshadows where you’ve arrived by the poem’s end–even if it’s surprising. Thus, my criteria here was how well these poems did just that, while, of course, embodying the poem’s emotional content.
“Provenance,” the first place poem, is a meditation on a photograph of a painting, that image in and of itself, a fairly distanced representation, but what the poet does is evoke the history of the speaker’s relationship to the painting until by poem’s end, the distance closed, this exploration of image and memory has fully transformed the painting from photograph into self– “where each saw/ what the other saw/ and how it holds us there.”
I think long poems are hard to write so my primary criteria in judging these poems was how well each of these poets held the elements of the poem together. Since long poems are often narratives, as these were, the poet must move the narrative forward while also maintaining a nuanced imagistic thread throughout, a kind of echoing that lets you both remember where you’ve been but which also satisfyingly foreshadows where you’ve arrived by the poem’s end–even if it’s surprising. Thus, my criteria here was how well these poems did just that, while, of course, embodying the poem’s emotional content.
“Provenance,” the first place poem, is a meditation on a photograph of a painting, that image in and of itself, a fairly distanced representation, but what the poet does is evoke the history of the speaker’s relationship to the painting until by poem’s end, the distance closed, this exploration of image and memory has fully transformed the painting from photograph into self– “where each saw/ what the other saw/ and how it holds us there.”
