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GREGORY BYRD
Awards, Teaching, Academics
Gregory Byrd’s poems have appeared widely in journals such as the Tampa Review, Apalachee Review, Cortland Review, Poeteka (Albania, in translation). Among his poetry books are Salt and Iron (Snake Nation, 2014), At Penuel (Split Oak, 2011) and Florida Straits (Yellowjacket Press, 2005). The Name for the God Who Speaks won the Robert Phillips Prize in 2018. An excerpt from his WWI flying novel, Where Shadow Meets Water, appears in Apalachee Review. He has received a Creative Pinellas Rapid Returns Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, an SPC Distinguished Teaching Award and a Pushcart Prize Nomination.
Greg studied poetry writing with Peter Meinke, Van K. Brock and David Kirby, fiction writing with Sterling Watson and Janet Burroway, and literature with Karen Kilcup, Scott Romine, Jewel Spears Brooker and Julienne Empric, among others.
When not writing, Greg fishes the flats near Clearwater, rides his bicycle and works on his 1966 Ford pickup. He teaches writing and humanities at St. Petersburg College.
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Awards:
2023: 2nd place, Roger Howard Poetry Contest, Safety Harbor Writers and Poets.
2018. Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize. Texas Review Press.
2016-2017: One-year Sabbatical Awarded by St. Petersburg College to research and write a novel.
2016: Rapid Returns Individual Artist Grant. Creative Pinellas.
2015: Distinguished Faculty Award. Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at St. Petersburg College
2011: Fulbright Fellow, Albania
2009: Finalist: Snake Nation Prize, Pinyon Press Prize
2008: Finalist, National Poetry Series
2006 & 2008: Runner-up, Snake Nation Press Poetry Book Prize
2005: Yellow Jacket Press Chapbook Prize for Florida Straits
2004: Silverberg Grant (with Karen Sidwell) for High School Creative Writing Workshop
1999: Carnegie-Mellon Grant: Professional Balance.
1998: Pushcart Prize nomination, Tampa Review, poetry
1990: Ann Durham Award for Outstanding M.A. Thesis in Creative Writing (Florida State University)
1989: First Place, Academy of American Poets Award Florida State University
1988: Albert Howard Carter Poetry Contest, Second Place, (Eckerd College)
1986-87: Dean’s List, Eckerd College Special Talent Scholarship in Poetry (Eckerd College)
1983-84: Freshman Research Associate Award, Eckerd College
Guest Poet:
Tampa YMCA Writer’s Voice (Spring 1997)
Writer’s Workshop in Poetry and Mythology using mythic structure and tropes for writing and revising poetry.
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Residencies:
Bowers House. Canon, Georgia. Summer 2014.
Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences. 2020, 2008 and 2005.
Readings:
Tombolo Books (with Tom Hallock). 23 October 2023.
Dunedin Public Library (with Carlyn Byrd, cello) 20 July 2023.
Pinellas Park Public Library (with Carlyn Byrd, cello) 21 July 2023.
Poetry and Painting: A Dialogue Between Pencil and Brush. Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art. 26 January 2023 and 27 April 2023
The Art and Architecture of Constructing the Poetry Book. Florida Bibliophile Society. University of Tampa. 16 April 2023.
Poetic Portals. Friends of Jack Kerouac. The Factory, St. Petersburg, Florida. 8 April 2023.
Dedication of Heath Satow's sculpture The See, City of Dunedin, Florida, 16 December 2022.
Master Learners at St. Petersburg College. Poetry and Cello (with Carlyn Byrd) December 2022.
Tampa Bay Writers Harvest. Tampa, FL. December 2022.
Kerouac in Azul. Studio@620. St. Petersburg, FL. October 2021.
Texas Review Press signing. AWP. March 2020.
Times Festival of Reading. November 2019.
Inkwood Books. AWP Offsite. March 2018.
Tampa Free Public Library. AWP Offsite. March 2018.
Safety Harbor Art and Music Festival. Nov 2016.
Other Words. Flagler College. Nov 2016.
Convention of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. St. Petersburg, Florida June 2015.
Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art. Tarpon Springs, Florida. April 2015.
Other Words. Flagler College. Nov 2015
Dunedin Public Library (with Carlyn Byrd, cello), April 2015.
International Poetry Day. City of Berat, Albania. 21 March 2011
“African American Literature.” Lecture. Aleksander Xhuvani University. Elbasan, Albania. 10 Feb 2011.
Transformations. Collaboration with artist Suzanne Clements. Brevard Art Museum and Florida Institute of Technology. June 2010.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Daytona Beach, Florida. Fall 2007.
Florida Literary Arts Coalition. Tallahassee, Florida. Spring 2007.
Florida College English Association. Lakeland, Florida. Fall 2006.
College English Association. San Antonio, Texas. Spring 2006.
St. Petersburg College-Clearwater Fall 2005
Blake High School for the Arts Tampa, Florida. Spring 2004, 2005
Brandon Public Library, Brandon, Florida. Spring 2005
Barnes & Noble. Clearwater, Florida. Summer 2003.
Inkwood Books. Tampa, Florida. Fall 2002.
Southeast Association of Teachers of Creative Writing. Fairhope, Alabama. Spring 2002.
John F. Germany Public Library. Tampa, Florida. Fall 2001.
Conferences:
Sandhills Writers Retreat. Negative Capability to Move Your Stories Forward. (click title for video) June 2022.
AWP San Antonio. Signing for Texas Review Press. March 2020.
“Music and Literature: Inspiration, Collaboration and Cognition” With Carlyn Byrd. Gulf Coast Teachers Of Creative Writing Conference. Fairhope, Alabama March 2019
Author Q & A Tampa Bay Publishing Conference. Wordier than Thou. Largo, Florida. Feb 2019.
“Fiction and Historical Research,” “Poetry and Research,” “What Makes a Florida Poet?” Other Words Conference.
University of Tampa, 2018.
“Fulbright Experience Albania 2011” 4th Annual International Symposium. St. Petersburg College. March 2018.
“Frontier as Trope in Florida Writing Past and Present.” AWP. Tampa, March 2018.
“Blindsided: The Unexpected Power of Laugh Lines in Otherwise Serious Work—A Reading and Discussion.” Other
Words, Florida Literary Arts Coalition. Flagler College. Nov 2016
“Metaphysical Connections: The Obvious Metaphor You Didn’t See Coming.” Safety Harbor Writers Conference.
Nov 2015
Poet in Residence. Creative Writing Institute. Florida Institute of Technology. June 2013.
Keynote Speaker. International Conference on English Studies. University of Tirana (Albania) Foreign Languages
Department. Spring 2011. “Wilderness in American Literature.”
Florida College English Association. Boynton Beach, Florida. Fall 2009. “Beyond Ekphrasis in the Poetry of Peter
Meinke.”
Florida College English Association. Ybor City, Florida. Fall 2008. “Inner and Outer Landscape in Two Stories by
Ernest Hemingway.”
Florida College English Association. Lakeland, Florida. Fall 2006. “Southwestern Humor in Rawlings’ The Yearling.”
Florida Literary Arts Coalition. Tallahassee. Winter 2006. “The Chapbook”
Florida College English Association. Fall 2003. Presenter. “Where is the Wilderness in Southern Literature?”
Southern Writers Symposium. Fall 2001. “’And so the storm passed and everyone was happy: Weather as Carnival in
Kate Chopin’s ‘At the ‘Cadian Ball’ and ‘The Storm.’” Society for the Study of Southern Literature. Spring 2000.
Presenter. “’Yuh Got to Go There to Know There’: Wilderness as Place of Epiphany in Hurston and Rawlings.” Society
for the Study of Southern Literature. Spring 1998.
Presenter: “Bricoleurs at the Southernmost Point: The Aesthetics of Southern and Florida Poetry.” Southern Writers
Symposium. Fall 1998.
Presenter: “Working at the Fountain of Youth: Yankee Redemption in Narratives of Florida by Mrs. Henry Ward
Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe and E.P. Powell.”
Publications About:
Dunbar, Chester. “Award Creates Opportunity to Write.” Sandbox News (St. Petersburg College) 24 June 2016. Web
Trammell, Michael. “Salt and Iron.” Book Review. Apalachee Review 64. Print.
Thornton, Grace. “Review: Fables of the Eco-Future at Hambidge’s Weave Shed Gallery.” Burnaway. 20 June 2013.
Web.
Bartman, Jennifer. “Florida Straits.” Book Review. Gulf Stream 26 (2006): 101-102.
Johnson, Susan Hemmingway. “Immersed in Verse.” The Tampa Tribune 4 April 2005.
Dennis, Brady and Kris Hundley. “Fear of War at Home, At Work andin Verse.” St. Petersburg Times. 10 March 2003:
1A.
Interview. South Florida Poetry Journal. May 2018.
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Education:
2001: Ph.D. American and Nineteenth Century British Literature, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Dissertation: Desert Places: Wilderness in Modernist American Literature, 1900-1940. Director: Karen Kilcup
1990: M.A., Creative Writing. Florida State University. Thesis: Trolling, a collection of forty-six original poems.
Director: Van K. Brock
1987: B.A. Literature and Creative Writing. Eckerd College,
St. Petersburg, Florida Major professor: Peter Meinke
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Scholarship:
“ ‘Storm Fear:’ Weather as Wilderness in the Modernist Imagination.” Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature 17(2009): 105-126.
“Elements of Southwestern Humor in The Yearling.” Proceedings of the Florida College English Association 2006. Cambridge Scholars Press.
“Teaching Nineteenth Century American Poetry in the Community College.” Teaching Nineteenth Century American Poetry. Eds. Paula Bennett, Karen Kilcup and Phillipp Schweighauser. New York: MLA, 2007.
“War and Antiwar Poetry,” “Richard Eberhart” and “Peter Meinke.” Facts on File Companion to Twentieth Century American Poetry. Ed. Burt Kimmelman. Facts on File, 2005.
“Aesthetics at the Southernmost Point: Towards a Definition of Florida Poetry.” Mississippi Quarterly, Spring 1999.
“Congratulations! You’re Leroy Moffitt!: Role-Playing to Bring OutCourse Concepts and Encourage Critical Thinking”, Innovation Abstracts 15.1
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Referenced in:
Davis, Cynthia and Verner D. Mitchell. Zora Neale Hurston: An Annotated
Bibliography of Works and Criticism. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2013.
Denham, Robert. Poets on Paintings: A Bibliography. Macfarland, 2010: 72.
Galvin, Mary. “Are We There Yet? In Search of Florida Poets.” Florida Studies:
Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Florida College English
Association. Ed. Paul Reich and Maurice O’Sullivan. Cambridge: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2011.
Nesami, Morteza Habibi. An Ecocritical Study of Identity in the Mirror of Nature in Selected Works by Joseph Conrad.
2012.
Nesami, Morteza Habibi. “On with Shobeyro: An Ecocritical Approach.” ContemporaryLit 4.4
(Winter 1393 [Islamic calendar]): 95-115. Web.
Runge, Laura. LIT 6934: Literature of Place. University of South Florida.
Recommended Reading.
Thompson, Christine. "The Poet Laureate." The Sandbox. 8 April 2019.
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Teaching Interests: Creative Writing, Literature and Ecology (ecocriticism, wilderness, place), 20th Century American Literature, Southern Literature, 19th Century British and American Literature, American and British Literature Surveys, Composition
Teaching Experience:
Fulbright Fellow University of Tirana, Albania. (2011) Creative Writing for English Majors
Professor St. Petersburg College (1990-present): Honors College faculty
CRW 2001 Creative Writing
CRW 2100 Fiction Workshop
CRW 2300 Poetry Workshop
AML 2012: American Literature to 1865.
AML 2022 American Literature 1865 to present.
IDH 2029H Honors Cornerstone Seminar
ENL 2012: British Literature to 1780
ENL 2022: British Literature 1780 to present.
ENC 1121H Honors Composition I: Nature and Self
ENC 1122H Honors Composition II: Literature and Justice
ENC 1102 Writing About War Literature
ENC 1101 Freshman Composition
HUM 2210 Western Humanities I
HUM 2233: Western Humanities II
IDS 1102H: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies II
IDS 1101H: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies I
LIT 2010: World Literature I
Adjunct Instructor: Eckerd College.
American Literature I (2001)
Literature and the Environment (2005-08)
Poetry Workshop (2007-10)
Poetry Thesis Committee Chair and Reader (2007-11)
Teaching Assistant:
University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1994-95, 97-99):
ENG 101: Composition One: The Semiotics of Popular Culture
ENG 102: Composition Two: Inquiry into Justice and Injustice.
Florida State University (1988-1990):
ENC 1142 Freshman Imaginative Workshop: A Synthesis of Student Poetry Writing and Composition.
ENC 1102 and ENC 1101
Academic Service:
Board, Florida Literary Arts Coalition. 2019-2022.
Reviewer, ISLE: International Studies in Literature and the Environment.
At St. Petersburg College:
Advisor and Founder, Master Learners 2019-present.
Advisor and Founder, Student Veterans Association. 2009-present.
Advisor, SPC Writers’ Collective 1996-97, 2002-03.
Mentor, Project Success: a program for at-risk students.
Coordinator of Student Literary Readings, 1991-1997, Clearwater Campus.
Faculty Council, 1992-93, 2000-2019
ENC 1101 and 1102 Textbook Committees, 1991, 1993, 2000, 2003
Applicant Search and Screen Committee, Summer 1991, Spring 1993, Summer 2003, Fall 2003.
At Florida State University:
Committee, McCrimmon Awards for Undergraduate Composition, 1988-1990.
Assistant, Spring Festival of Writers, 1990.
Community Service:
Member, City of Clearwater Public Art and Design Advisory Board. June 2021-present.
Judge, "Etched in Stone" community poetry contest, Clearwater, Florida, 2020.
“Healing Words: Poetry for Cancer Patients.” Morton Plant Hospital Cancer Support Center. Clearwater, Florida. January 2017.
Member, Dunedin Youth Sailing Association, 2009
Volunteer discussions at Academie Davinci Elementary School. 2006-2009
Lecture on Robert Frost. Unitarian Universalist Church. Fall 2004 Clearwater, FL.
Shepherd’s Center Poetry Series, Fall 1997. Greensboro, NC.
Judge, Sunrise Hospital Seniors Essay Contest, Fall 1995.
Judge, Pinellas County Arts Council Seniors Poetry Contest, 1993, 1991.
Poetry Staff, Sundog: The Southeast Review, 1989-1990.
Reader, Anhinga Prize in Poetry, 1989.
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