Professor Emerita of English and
McCann Chair in the Humanities, Defiance College
Poetry Reading, 14 August 2019, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
Poetry Publications
The Found Object Imagines a Life: New and Selected Poems. 111-poem collection, 72 pages. Cornerstone Press. (2022).
"My Life As a Road." Seems 54 (Fall 2022).
"What Shoes Do." National Poetry Month reprint of 2017 publication to celebrate the journal's 10th year. South 85 Journal (12 April 2022).
"To Break Open." After Happy Hour 15 (Fall 2021).
"How to Begin the Day." Maya's Micros of The Closed Eye Open 12 (9 February 2021).
"Thirteen Versions of the Big Bang" and "Ghosts I Have Known." No Contact 16 (14 January 2021).
"A Map to Live On." Wild Roof Journal 5 (November 2020).
"Imagining Life as a Graffiti Artist." MidAmerica 45 (2018): 8-9. Winner of the 2018 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize.
“Eclipse of the Past.” Sky Island Journal 6 (2018).
"On Seeing, Too Close." SLAB 13 (2018).
"Where We Are, What We Are." SwampFire.org (2018).
"What Shoes Do." South 85 Journal (2017).
"To Invent What We Desire." Third Wednesday (2017).
"matchbox sparrow" [haiku first line]. Three Line Poetry 45 (2017). Prolific Press.
Three poems ("Four Words of the Apocalypse," "Eleusinian Mystery," "Diving In"). The Spectacle 4 (2017).
"The Fall" and "The Art of Love." Sheila-Na-Gig 1.4 (Summer 2017).
"Yes, people suffer" [tanka first line]. Tanka Journal 5 (2017). Prolific Press.
"Persephone in Summer" and "What Hands Ask of Stone." The Offbeat. (Fall 2017, vol. 18)
"Blue Spruce." Kansas City Voices 14 (2017). Whispering Prairie Press.
"Sonic Booms" and "Things That Bite or Drag You Underground." South Florida Poetry Journal 5 (SoFloPoJo, May 2017)
"Sgraffito." Print-Oriented Bastards 10 (2017).
"A Murder of Crows." SLAB 12 (2017).
Some Gods Don't Need Saints, 19-poem chapbook, Finishing Line Press. 2015 New Women's Voices Chapbook Competition semifinalist. (2016).
"Maumee River, High Water" and "Behind a Wooden Window." Old Northwest Review (Fall 2015).
"Feuding Clans." The Comstock Review (Fall/Winter 2015).
"Marble Love." Abyss & Apex (Oct 2015).
"Nox, Rain." SwampFire.org (2015).
"Planet of Chairs." Cold Mountain Review 43.2 (Spring 2015).
"At Toul Sleng, Dec. 2005." Pudding Magazine 63 (2015).
"Muddy World." MidAmerica 40 (2013): 13-15. Winner of the 2013 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize.
"Potter's Retreat, Poet's Ground." SwampFire.org (2013).
"Bleached Wheat." The Cleveland Reader. July 2007.
Embroidered Bodies collection of four poems (“Embroidery,” “Miriam, Bitter Sea,” “Sin of the Cyborg,” and “Job, Fresh from Cyberspace”). "Digital Eves: Transgression/Transcendence in Cyberspace" issue of WomenWriters.net. Jan. 2007. http://www.womenwriters.net/digitaleves/harper.html
"Deaf Enough." New England Review 13.2 (1991). 181-82. A Winner of Associated Writing Programs "Intro Award for Poetry" (1990).
Five untitled poems in Masque 1.1 (1991). 60-64.
"The Blue Vase." Bozeman Er 6 June 1986. 3-4.
Manuscripts
The Lamentations of Eve, 459-line dramatic monologue.
The Burden of Fangs, poetry chapbook.
Building Poems of Ash and Air, hybrid poetry/memoir.
Fierce Love Poems, poetry chapbook.
Thrown to Shore, haiku chapbook.
Unfiltered Light and Shadow, book-length poetry collection.
Philomel's Tapestry: A Quarrel of Family, poetic drama in four voices, four acts.
Ghost of Persephone, poetry chapbook.
Readings
The Found Object Imagines a Life reading. Lansing, MI: Everybody Reads, 15 Oct 2022. Proprietor/Host: Scott Harris. The event was part of the city’s Book Crawl and included both pop-up readings from the just-launched collection and a formal session with fellow readers: Dawn Burns, Mike Copperman, and Kait West.
The Found Object Imagines a Life FUMFA Facebook and YouTube reading. Fairfield, CT: Fairfield University, 25 Sep 2022. MFA program hosts: Chris Belden and Kaite Schneider. A reading of selections from the just-launched poetry collection. The event included a reading by poet Meredith Bergmann.
The Found Object Imagines a Life Zoom book launch. Cornerstone Press, 22 Sep 2022. Hosted by Ross Tangedal (editor) and Angela Green (production director). A reading with three other poets of the Portage Poetry Series: Emily Hockaday, Lynn Viti, Dokubo, and Melford Goodhead.
"Queer Stories and Conversations." Goshen, IN: Fables Books, 10 July 2022. Invited reader (one of three) for LGBTQ celebration at Fables Bookstore.
Everybody Reads bookstore reading. Lansing, MI, 30 Apr 2022. Invited reader (one of two). Presented a selection of new poems.
Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks Zoom reading. Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference Online Session, 26 Apr 2021. Invited reader (one of four), to present two award-winning poems and other poetry of my choosing.
"Fierce Love: A Poet's Childhood." Warsaw, IN, 6 Mar 2020. Invited reader, to present sections of a lyric-memoir, which affirms the capacity for growth, not just in the memoirist but in her mother, whose love for her children was so strong that she faced herself, vowed to change her abusive behavior, and did.
"Fierce Love and other Poems." Provincetown, MA: Fine Arts Work Center, 14 Aug. 2019. Invited reader, to present poetry composed during Harper's Ohio Poet-in-Residence time at the Fine Arts Work Center.
“The Circle's Increase.” Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 16 May 2019. Invited reader, to present poetry composed over the past ten years.
"Stories to Misremember." Syracuse, IN: Syracuse Public Library. 9 Nov. 2018. Invited reader, to present 2015 poems that address the condition of memory shifting over time and question the purpose of memory in the human lifecycle.
"Lifecycle of a Memory." Richmond, IN: Earlham School of Religion, 2 Nov. 2018. The first of the set of poems that play with personification, that give voice to voiceless things (and people).
“Lifecycle of a Memory.” Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 17 May 2018. The first of the poems that play with personification, that give voice to voiceless things (and people).
Poetry selections from Dreading Distance: A Collection of Fifty-Three Isolated Voices. Lansing, MI: Schuler Books, 1 May 2018. Invited reader, to celebrate the launch of a new issue of literary writing and art by The Offbeat, sponsored by Michigan State University.
“Spelunking for Persephone.” Indianapolis, IN: National Popular Culture Association, 30 Mar. 2018. Second half of collection based on discussions with the visual artist and spelunker Katie St. Clair, whose Glacial Erratics paintings focus on the geologic textures of The Burren area of Ireland.
“Spelunking for Persephone.” Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 3 June 2017. First half of collection based on discussions with the visual artist and spelunker Katie St. Clair, whose Glacial Erratics paintings focus on the geologic textures of The Burren area of Ireland.
Poetry selections from Spelunking for Persephone. Defiance, OH: Defiance College, 23 Feb. 2017 Poetry reading given as part of the “The Gathering” sponsored by the Arts & Humanities Division.
"Festival of Language" reading. Griffith, IN: Small Prestivus 2016, 23 July 2016. Invited reader, to present works in progress on the myth of Persephone.
"The Festival of Language: A Reading Experiment." Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 4 June 2016. A reading by a group of poets, orchestrated by Jane Carman.
"Leave the Casket Open." Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 3 June 2016. A performance of sorts, a ritual of sorts, this reading is a creative expression of the grieving process when a family member has died.
"Apocalypse of the Anthropocene." Seattle, WA: National Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association, 24 Mar. 2016. A study of the Greek roots of "apocalypse" in relation to the bio-geologic Anthropocene age, our current age of human control and disruption of the natural environment.
"Stories to Misremember. " Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 31 May 2015. A set of poems that address the condition of memory shifting over time and question the purpose of memory in the human lifecycle.
"To Misremember or Forget the World." New Orleans, MS: Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, 2 Apr. 2015. Draws on two collections of poems to expose the relationships among individual self interest, the overwhelming needs of others, and the juggernaut of "human condition" forces.
"SwampFire Author’s Visit" poetry reading. Defiance, OH: Defiance Public Library, 31 Jan. 2015. Part of the "Adult Winter Series" sponsored by Ohio Arts Council and Defiance Public Library.
"Forever Collection." Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 9 May 2014. Examines the problem of human memory, including processes of misremembering events, seeking to remember clearly, and even identifying events better left un-remembered or "thrown away."
"Pulling Wings Off Onions." Chicago, IL: National Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, 18 Apr. 2014. Second half of a book-length collection of poems on the complex intergenerational relationships within a family. (See entry below for first half.)
"Pulling Wings Off Onions." Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 9 May 2013. Poetry from the first half of a collection on intergenerational family relationships, presented in the form of dramatic monologues, soliloquies, and commentary on world-community attitudes.
Public SwampFire Reading with four other area professional writers. Defiance, OH. 510 Studio and Art Academie, 1 Apr 2012.
"Only Wild Women and Visionaries." Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Conference, 10 May 2010.
“As the Heavens Spin Open.” Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, 15 May 2010.
A poetry reading on a “clan of heavy weather and thin lips.”
Public reading at “Unfettered Poetry and Story Night.” Defiance, OH: Defiance Public Library, 23 Mar 2010.
“There’s Sense in Our Poetry.” Lansing, MI: The HerStories Project (funded by MSU Center for Poetry, Michigan Women’s Historical Center, and other Michigan organizations), 13 Mar 2010.
Workshop using objects of the natural world as prompts for entering poetic and spiritual space.
“Outside Inside Poems.” Lansing, MI: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, 9 May 2009.
A poetry reading/media presentation of creative intersections between geographical place and psychological space.
Four Public Readings at “Cabin Fever.” Defiance, OH: Fall 2003.
"A Quarrel of Voices." Reader's theater production. Bowling Green, OH: Feminist Generations: Interdisciplinary International Women's Studies Conference, 3 February 1996.
Poetry Reading at the Black Swamp Arts Festival, Bowling Green , OH: Sept. 1994.
Poetry Reading at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH: March 1989.