Poetry:
The Wreck of Birds
Rebecca Givens Rolland embraces an assimilation of internal feeling and thought with circumstances of the natural world and the conflicts and triumphs of our human endeavors. Here, we discover a language that seeks to at once replicate and transcend experiences of loss and disaster, and together with the poet ”we hope that such bold fates will not forget us.” Even at the speaker’s most vulnerable moments, when ”Each word we d spoken / scowls back, mirrored in barrels of wind” these personal poems insist on renewal. With daring honesty and formal skill, The Wreck of Birds achieves a revelatory otherness what Keats called the ”soul-making task” of poetry. — Walter E. Butts, 2009-2014 New Hampshire Poet Laureate
Chapbook: The Vine of Somewhere, 2017
Liquids “create indeterminate forms at the surface… that are never absolutes”
How can distance increase, entice hundreds of miles? More the girl chases, more messages face backward, till she’s left only
militancy, marching-music, wind. Sputtering, she knocks breath’s buttons: jackets thread stitches, spin hooks. Itinerant, pooled glass transmits message; what about the ever-counting child? Scholar might teethe
self from trouble, yet ruin mud-spilled fields. To speak, she raps throat, clears borders: mouth swooning (cautious, inked)
she dives. Bad weather at least offers solace: clouds,
cumulus, flattened, press workhorse, then
good shepherd, on her tongue—
Chapbook: On the Refusal to Speak, 2012
Text Message
I planted a microphone in the bush, and the bush
sang. No burning, just a muted internal
hum. Floodwaters sloshed by to say hello,
proffering an upsurge of bulbs. Scarlet,
azalea, do-not-forget-my-name. No
gardener, I keeled them up in clumps. Almost
no effort to crush them, just a squeeze;
I wouldn’t say I was sorry to blacken their
lines. Next time, I’ll bring jam and a bucket
of daisies: singe me, I’ll wager white petals sneer.
Individual Poems
“Presence,” in 236 Magazine (Boston University)
http://www.bu.edu/236magazine/past-issues/current-issue-2/poetry-rebecca-givens-rolland/
Bring on the unborn, the as-yet-
unreleased—let the sand-trap
convex, turn mechanism
at the throat’s base, beating
gold with the threat of steeped
branches, bleating over and
over tired till the hash
of rain no longer treads
lightly, thrushes hunger
fallowly abroad, chest whips
tree-long, under its own
houses, its burnished hair—
As if first inscriptions were enough, slate-riven water
I plunged my face
in. I thought I’d drown. What survival conceals itself
in tunnels, what contingencies linger
underground.
“The Underworld in Springtime” in Switchback
http://www.swback.com/issues/015/underworld-springtime.html
After so much exactness – after
one angle of wind that
shivers, lashes metal filings till
underlying rust flattens
out – after it no longer contains
any motion, wheels
of tendons threaten to unwind, dissolve
in dawdling ash as ship-
wrecks settle, elsewhere, on the inattentive
floor—
Selected Journal Publications
Commentary from North American Review: ““Three Fish” by R. G. Rolland explores the intersection between artistic potential and desire. The stunning art for this piece is from newcomer Matt Manley and captures the story’s discord.
FICTION:
- “Seaweed Wasn’t the Right Color” in Green Hills Literary Lantern (forthcoming)
- “Three Fish” in North American Review (2016)
- “Honey Alone Would Do It” in The Literary Review (2015) pdf
- “The Land of Sibilants” in Slice Magazine (2014)
- “Revealing the Face” in Tampa Review Online (2014)
- “To the Man with the Synthesized Voice,” Hobart (2014)
- “In the Hospital, Just Before the Explosion” in Literary Orphans (2013)
- “We Did at First See Justice” in J Journal (2011)
POETRY:
- “Narrative of the Caveman Nearing Light” in Thrush Poetry Journal (2017)
- “After the Marriage but Before the Fire” in Stirring (2017)
- “In Each Dream Defeat” in Leveler (2017)
- “Dream of Jaundice” in Connotation Press (2017)
- “Open, Near” in District Lit (2016)
- “Goldenrod” in Contemporary Verse 2 (2016)
- “Ode to S., Now Three” in Rhino (2016)
- “Birth Story” and “Song of the Ninth Month” in Zone 3 (2016)
- “Announcing” and “The Tiny Feat” in diode (2015)
- “Rook-Edge” in Oxford Poetry (2015)
- “Two in Winter” in Barrow Street (2015)
- “Dream of the Only Child” in Denver Quarterly (2014)
- “Lean Times” and “Octagon” in DMQ Review (2014)
- “This Eye and That” in Bat City Review (2014)
- “In the Night Mirror” in Hawaii Pacific Review (2014)
- “Presence” and “Storm” in The Kenyon Review (2013)
- “This Quantity of Light” in Fourteen Hills (2013)
- “Colony” in Carte Blanche (2013)
- “After Visiting Hours” in Thrush Poetry Journal (2013)
- “In the Hotel Lobby” in Verse Wisconsin (2013)
- “The Wreck of Birds” in Poet’s Market (2013)
- “Waystation for the Secretly Claustrophobic,” “Near the Beachhead,” and “A Hair Beyond” in Hotel Amerika (2013)
- “From the Book of Leavening” in Silk Road (2012)
- “Song for Two Voices” in Crab Creek Review (2012)
- “The Underworld in Springtime” in Switchback (2012)
- “Crumbs” in the Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review (2012)
- “Custody” in Field (2012)
- “Five Little Lizards” in Denver Quarterly (2011)
- “Mistaken for Ice, Air” in Colorado Review (2011)
- Selected Poems in pdf
GRANTS AND AWARDS:
- FAWC Esther Kahn Fellowship, 2013
- Semi-finalist, Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, 2013
- Finalist, Sante Fe Writers’ Project, 2013
- May Sarton New Hampshire First Book Prize, 2011
- Dana Award for Short Fiction, 2011
- Harvard University Roy E. Larsen Fellowship, 2009
- Semifinalist, Alice James Book, Kinreth Gensler First Book Award, 2008
- Finalist, Iowa Review Award for Poetry, 2007
- Finishing Line Press, chapbook accepted for publication, 2007
- Winner, Editor’s Select, 42 Opus, 2006
- Athens College Teaching Fellowship, 2005
- Academy of American Poets Award, Boston University, 2004
- National Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, 2003-4
- Kilborne Memorial Fellowship for Independent Research, 2002
- Yale University Prizes: Clapp Fellowship for Poetry, Bergen Prize for Poetry, Veech Prize for Fiction
- First place, Dana Award for Poetry
READINGS AND WORKSHOPS:
- Reader, Blacksmith Poetry House; Cambridge, MA
- Featured Reader, Grub Street Instructor Showcase; Boston, MA
- Workshop Leader; Lowell and Boston, MA
If you’re interested in talking with Rebecca about speaking or consulting projects, please contact her.