Benjamin Vogt

Benjamin Vogt is the author of a forthcoming poetry collection, AFTERIMAGE (SFA Press, 2012), and two poetry chapbooks: WITHOUT SUCH ABSENCE (Finishing Line Press, 2010) and INDELIBLE MARKS (Pudding House, 2004). He is also the author of SLEEP, CREEP, LEAP: THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF A NEBRASKA GARDEN, a collection of prairie gardening essays (Amazon.com).Benjamin was born in Oklahoma City and has lived in Minnesota, Indiana, England, Ohio, and Nebraska. He has a Ph.D. in poetry and creative nonfiction (double dissertation) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an M.F.A. in poetry from The Ohio State University, and a B.F.A. from the University of Evansville. He has received several honors for his writing, including the Louise VanSickle Fellowship, the Frederick A. Stuff Dissertation Fellowship, a Ropewalk Writers Retreat scholarship, a Vermont Studio Center Artist's Grant, and awards from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund. His work has been nominated in two genres for a Pushcart Prize.His poems and creative nonfiction have appeared in American Life in Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, Cream City Review, Creative Nonfiction, Diagram, ISLE, Orion, Puerto del Sol, Sou'wester, Subtropics, The Sun, and Verse Daily, as well as several anthologies including Red, White, and Blues: Poets on the Promise of America (University of Iowa Press) and The "Backwards" Research Guide for Writers: Using Your Life for Reflection, Connection, and Inspiration (Equinox). Benjamin serves on the board of Wachiska Audubon, a prairie conservation group, speaks regionally on prairie gardening, and runs a native plant garden coaching service (Monarch Gardens).Current book projects include:TURKEY RED (memoir)A lost son of Oklahoma traces his Mennonite roots through the echo of his grandmother. The culture and history of Plains Indians, German settlers, and prairie wildlife lead the author into America’s frontier legacy—a wound left unhealed until family is discovered again through the vanishing landscapes around us.MORNING GLORY: A STORY OF FAMILY AND CULTURE IN THE GARDEN (memoir)When a son reflects on a childhood of gardening with his mother, he finds clues to a family lineage built around silences, distance, and forgetfulness. Eventually, his mother begins to openly reveal a past that confronts the author’s own dark nature. In the history of gardens there are great tragedies and triumphs, and in the garden we continue to discover our truest selves.