Debra Bruce’s latest book of poetry, Survivors’ Picnic, was published in 2012 by Word Press. She is the author of three previous collections, Pure Daughter and Sudden Hunger, both from the University of Arkansas Press, and What Wind Will Do, from Miami University Press. Her work has been published widely in journals, including The Atlantic, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Virginia Quarterly Review, and others.
Sudden Hunger received the Carl Sandburg Award from the Chicago Public Library, and her work has also received grants and prizes from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, the Poetry Society of America, and Poetry magazine. Originally from Albany, New York, Debra lives in Chicago where she is a professor emeritus at Northeastern Illinois University.
Photo by Karen Kring