Eleanor Lerman

During a career that now spans over fifty years, Eleanor Lerman has published numerous award-winning collections of poetry, short stories, and novels. One of the youngest people ever to be named a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry, she also won the inaugural Juniper Prize from the University of Massachusetts Press and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the American Academy of Poets, among other accolades. In addition, her novels have been recognized with numerous awards including the John W. Campbell Award for Best Book of Science Fiction and being shortlisted for The Chautauqua Prize; recent awards for her short fiction have included being named a finalist for the Missouri Review Perkoff Prize. She has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts for poetry and the New York Foundation for the Arts for fiction. Her most recent work, Slim Blue Universe (Mayapple Press 2023) was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur, awarded to “the best on the frontier of poetry—the experimental, the innovative, the daring and stunning, the impromptu in technique and voice.” In 2026, She Writes Press will publish King the Wonder Dog and Other Stories, her collection of new short stories. Find her online at eleanorlerman.com and on Facebook (facebook.com/eleanor.lerman).