Cross Tie 2.23.15: Paula Koneazny

Paula Koneazny is a brilliant poet we lost too soon this past fall. Her work has appeared in Sidebrow, Bateau and was published in her three chapbooks:  Installation from Tarpaulin Sky Press, The Year I Was Alive from dpress and Vernacular from Todd Melicker’s micro-press eyesparrow editions. Her writing challenged the borders and parameters by which we categorize poetry.  She combined complex scientific ideas with real human experiences and played with language in such a way as to enliven it.  Or, she would walk the grammatical seam between English and French.  In addition to her own writing, Paula wrote exquisite and exploritive poetry reviews about the work of poets she admired for Rain Taxi, American Book Review and Tarpaulin Sky. The forthcoming issue of Volt  (volume 20) will feature twelve pages of her previously unpublished poetry. You can read an excerpt from her chapbook here. -- Iris Jamahl Dunkle, poet of the week.