Sky Pilot

Sky Pilot
30 Pages
ISBN 978-1-62229-086-4

In 2013, Scrupe’s first chapbook of poems entitled Sky Pilot, about growing up with an alcoholic father, was nominated for the 16th Library of Virginia Literary Awards. Individual poems have been published in print and web journals and two of Scrupe’s poems, “Christmastime” and “River,” were shortlisted for the 2014 Bridport Prize in Poetry, UK.

Mara Adamitz Scrupe's SKY PILOT poems - intense, provocative, deeply satisfying in their wondrous, spare ability to strike so many true notes. She weaves grief, humor, the savory complexity of relating to blood kin - into a sky of potent scenes, wide enough to hold us all.

  • Naomi Shihab Nye author of over twenty volumes including Words Under the Words, Never in a Hurry, Fuel, You & Yours, and Transfer

Some things are easy to write about, and some things aren’t. Mara Adamitz Scrupe has chosen one of the hard ones: her relationship with her abusive, alcoholic father. In language that’s precise and images that are unflinching, she writes about the complex core of what she felt for her dad. These poems are honest and terrifying and loving.

  • John Guzlowski author, Lightning and Ashes

Mara Adamitz Scrupe

About Mara Adamitz Scrupe (Twin Cities, Minnesota Author)

Mara Adamitz Scrupe

Mara Adamitz Scrupe is a poet and visual artist. Her fellowships include NEA CEC/ArtsLink, Washington DC Arts Commission, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Arts Commission, MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Foundation, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Montalvo Arts Center, Irish Museum of Modern Art Residency Programme, and USF Verftet-AiR/Bergen.

She is the author of six award-winning poetry collections: in the bare bones house of was (Brighthorse Press), Eat the Marrow (Erbacce-press), Beast (NFSPS Press), a daughter’s aubade/ sailing out from Sognefjord (Middle Creek Publishing), Magnalia (Eyewear Press) and Sky Pilot (Finishing Line Press). Her poems have been published widely in national and international literary magazines and journals including London Magazine, Mid America Review, Maine Review, Rhino, Comstock Review, Off the Coast, Narrative Magazine, Cincinnati Review, Bare Fiction, Matador Review, Ruminate, Crosswinds Review, Crab Creek Review and Sentinel Quarterly Literary Review (UK).

She has won or been shortlisted/nominated for many international poetry awards and prizes including Canterbury International Arts Festival Poet of the Year (UK), Forward Prize for Poetry (UK), Pushcart Poetry Prize (USA) Rubery Book Award (UK), Brighthorse Poetry Book Prize (USA), Grindstone International Poetry Competition (UK), Fish Prize (Ireland), Aesthetica Award (UK), Erbacce-press Poetry Book Prize (UK), Plough Prize (UK), Ron Pretty Prize (Australia), Periplum Book Award, Cornwall Festival Competition (UK), Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s Award, (Australia), and National Poetry Competition (UK). She is a marathon runner, an accordionist, and dean of the School of Art, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, USA.

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