THROAT SINGING, available March 2012 from poetry publisher Word Tech's Cherry Grove Collections

Tarcher/Penguin -- March,2009

Finishing Line Press -- March, 2009

Unfinished Monument Press 2005

Welcome

I'm a journalist and poet in Berkeley, California. I've been a newspaper reporter, a contributing writer to the Washington Post Magazine, and a professor in the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California.

Word Tech/​ Cherry Grove published my first full-length book of poems, "Throat Singing," in March 2012. Please look at Poetry News on my site, or at the Cherry Grove Collections catalog for more information, and please keep an eye on my events page for readings.


Cherry Grove Collections
Information about "Throat Singing"

"Birding by Ear" and "Freefall" won the 2012 Literal Latte Poetry Prize and appear online in the Winter 2013 issue. "Viewing Guernica in Madrid" and "Ode to the Brown Pelican" won a 2012 Atlanta Review International Publication Prize and appear in the journal's fall issue. "Valentine" appears in the Fall/​Winter 2012-3 Valparaiso Poetry Review. "Strata" (with audio) appears in the winter 2012 issue of Able Muse as a finalist for the Able Muse Write Prize. "Every Minute Drove It Wilder" appears in the current issue of Southern Humanities Review.

My poem "The Woman Who Feels No Fear" won the 2011 Rita Dove Poetry Award, judged by Allison Joseph, and also an Atlanta Review International Publication Prize. Debora Greger chose my poem "Their Voices" for the 2011 Anderbo Poetry Prize.


Anderbo.com
"Their Voices" 2011 Anderbo Poetry Prize

"Normal at Any Cost" won The National Association of Science Writers 2010 Science in Society Award. One of the judges praised the book this way: "excellent and in-depth reportage, interestingly and breezily written, on an important (and to me, overlooked) medical/​scientific issue. It has pretty much everything I look for: attention to the scientific process, human interest, a strong and consistent narrative." The book, co-authored with Christine Cosgrove, was published by Tarcher/​Penguin in March, 2009, and partially funded with a book award from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

"Normal at Any Cost" was also an Editor's Pick in November, 2009, in Choice Reviews and a Women's Bioethics Bookclub selection. It is a Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2009, and was among Library Journal's Best Picks of 2009 in consumer health books. The New York Times called it "irresistible."

"Finding the Sweet Spot,poems by Susan Cohen" was published by Finishing Line Press in March, 2009.

I received a Pushcart Prize nomination from poet Kim Addonizio for some of the work included in "Finding the Sweet Spot."

Recent poems have appeared in Anderbo, Atlanta Review, CALYX, California Quarterly, Canary, Greensboro Review, Nimrod, Oberon, Passager, Pearl, Poetry East, River Styx,and Southern Poetry Review, as well as on the Broadsided website and these anthologies: Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down: An Anthology of Women's Poetry (Scarlet Tanager Books), Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology (Salmon Poetry), Mamas and Papas (City Works Press), Marin Poetry Center Anthology 2011, and From the Well of Living Waters (Kehilla Synagogue).

Other publications where poems have appeared include: Alehouse, Comstock Review, Connecticut Review, Ekphrasis, New Millennium Writings,Poet Lore, Poetry International, Puerto del Sol, Seattle Review, Sow's Ear Review, Spillway, Tar River Poetry, and Verse Daily.

"Throat Singing," my first full-length poetry manuscript, was originally titled "Dreaming on A Hard Mattress" and was a finalist for the 2010 Richard Snyder Publication Prize at Ashland Poetry Press, and for the ABZ First Book Contest, as well as semi-finalist at Sixteen Rivers Press.


My profile of Dr. Abraham Verghese appeared in the January/​February 2009 Stanford Magazine, and can be read online.


"Survival," which appears in "Finding the Sweet Spot," won a New Millennium Writings Award for Best Poem in 2006.


"Two Ways," a poem from "Backstroking," was featured on Verse Daily in December, 2005.