WriterEd Ochester

Ed Ochester's most recent books are Unreconstructed: Poems Selected and New (Autumn House Press, July 2007), The Republic of Lies (chapbook, Adastra Press, June 2007), The Land of Cockaigne (Story Line Press, 2001), and American Poetry Now (University of Pittsburgh Press, March 2007), an anthology of contemporary American poetry.  He edits the Pitt Poetry Series and is general editor of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction (both University of Pittsburgh Press). From 1978 to 1998 he was director of
the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh, and was twice elected president of Associated Writing Programs.  He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, recently won the $15,000 "Artist of the Year" award of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and in 2006 won AWP's George Garrett Award for service to literature. He co-edits the poetry magazine 5 AM and is a core faculty member of the Bennington College MFA program.