Shoshauna Shy

photo by Marty Drapkin

CONTACT

Shoshauna Shy
Madison, Wisconsin

BIO

Shoshauna Shy is a member of the Prairie Fire Poetry Quartet which includes John Lehman, Richard Roe and Robin Chapman. They are available to perform at museum celebrations, art gallery openings, special events and evening soirées. In May 2004, she founded a program called Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf, www.poetryjumpsofftheshelf.com in which the mission is to place poetry in public places where it is not expected. Please email Shoshauna for more information about this program.

Shoshauna Shy's poems have been published on-line and in numerous journals and magazines which include Poetry Northwest, Cimarron Review, The Comstock Review and Rosebud. One of her poems was selected for the Poetry 180 Library of Congress program, "A Poem a Day in American High Schools" launched by Billy Collins. In 2008, she won an Outstanding Achievement Poetry Award from the Wisconsin Library Association for her collection What the Postcard Didn't Say published by Zelda Wilde Publications in 2007.

PUBLICATIONS

What the Postcard Didn't Say, full-length collection, Zelda Wilde Publishing, 2007 - $11.95 - Winner of an Outstanding Achievement Poetry Award from the Wisconsin Library Association
White Horses on Sale for a Song, Parallel Press, 2005 - $10.00
Lake Wingra Morning: Poems of the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood, Woodrow Hall Editions in partnership with the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association, 2003 - $5.00. Edited by Shoshauna Shy - SOLD OUT
Slide Into Light: Poems of the Brighter Moments, Moon Journal Press, 2001 - $8.00
Souped-Up on the Must-Drive Syndrome, Pudding House Publications, 2000 - $8.95

Shoshauna Shy's poems have been anthologized by Random House, Grayson Books, Wisconsin Poets' Calendars, Samsara Quarterly, Pudding House Publications and Wild Dove Studio & Press.

OTHER POEMS
www.poetscanvas.org/feature_shy.htm
www.madpoetry.org/madpoets/shyshosh.html

BOOKINGS

2008

April
Participant in reading from new anthology by Red Hen Press titled Letters to the World: Poetry from the Wom-Po Listserv April 13th at 2:00 PM with Susan Elbe, David Graham, Karla Huston, Marilyn Taylor and Wendy Vardaman at Avol's Bookstore in Madison

May
Presenting "From Pen to Published Page" on May 7th as part of Angela Rydell's poetry class titled "The Ecstasy of Extremes - How to Harness the Tension of Contrast in Poetry." Offering successful submission tactics for getting your poems published. Contact via email for Madison location.

POEM

LOTTERY

When he broke into houses
he never took anything.
What he did was earn the trust
of the cats who preened and strutted,
gave them Whiska Chewies
till they jowl-rubbed his calves,
then helped himself to carrot cake,
mixed an amaretto sour.
Since women postponed motherhood
to pursue full day careers,
he had his pick of the colonials
that bordered Cedar Drive,
noted what hedges hid entryways,
which windows were rigged.
One day numbers would click face up
with his name blazing on the jackpot
and he wouldn't meet the crack of dawn
for the paper route anymore,
aim the bulky bundles
at those polished brassy kickplates.
He was getting too old to park on the street
and sleep inside his car,
eating cafe refuse till the cleaning shift at Jeeve's.
So, it behooved him to scrutinize
which homes sat all day empty,
locate a key on a pantry hook
and get a copy made, memorize
escape routes, leave the kitchen
as he found it, not wear muddy shoes, not take
the last piece of pecan pie.
Be grateful to the velvet cat
whose purrbox kept his secret.

Published by Fox Cry Review

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