Debra Marquart is a professor in the Department of English and the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University. Her work has appeared in numerous journals such as North American Review, Three Penny Review, New Letters, River City, Crab Orchard Review, Cumberland Poetry Review, The Sun Magazine, Southern Poetry Review, Orion, and Witness.  Marquart's essay, "Chores," was recently anthologized in The Best Creative Nonfiction, published by W.W. Norton in 2007.

In the seventies and eighties, Marquart was a touring road musician with rock and heavy metal bands. Her collection of short stories, The Hunger Bone: Rock & Roll Stories draws from her experiences as a female road musician. Marquart continues to perform with a jazz-poetry rhythm & blues project, The Bone People, with whom she has released two CDs: Orange Parade (acoustic rock); and A Regular Dervish (jazz-poetry).

Marquart’s work has received numerous awards and commendations, including the John Guyon Nonfiction Award (Crab Orchard Review), the Mid-American Review Nonfiction Award, The Headwater’s Prize from New Rivers Press, the Minnesota Voices Award, the Pearl Poetry Award (Pearl Editions), the Shelby Foote Prize for the Essay from the Faulkner Society, and a Pushcart Prize.  In 2008, Marquart was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Prose Fellowship.

A performance poet, Marquart is the author of two poetry collections: Everything's a Verb and From Sweetness. Her memoir, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere, published by Counterpoint Books in 2006, received an Editors' Choice commendation from the New York Times, an "Elle Lettres" Award from Elle Magazine, and was awarded PEN USA's 2007 Creative Nonfiction Award.  She is currently at work on a novel, set in Greece, titled Among the Ruins, and a poetry collection, Another Day on Earth.

Office/Office Hours

• office: 303 Ross
• office hours:  1 - 2 PM, Tuesday/Thursday or by appointment.
• office phone: (515) 294-3173
• cell phone:  (515) 290-7731
• email: marquart@iastate.edu
• personal website: debramarquart.com

Interests

• Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction
• Travel Writing
• Performance Poetry
• Intermedia Arts

Selected Publications

BOOKS

• The Horizontal World: Growing up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere. A Memoir. New York: Counterpoint Books, 2006.
• From Sweetness: Poems. Long Beach: Pearl Editions, 2002.
• The Hunger Bone: Rock & Roll Stories. Minneapolis, MN: New Rivers Press, 2001.
• Everything's a Verb. Minneapolis, MN: New Rivers Press, 1995.

RECENT JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

• “Refusing Nostalgia.”  Home/Land: The New Symposium Proceedings, Paros 2008.  International Writing Program, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.  2008.

• "Some Things About That Day."  Brevity:  A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction 27 (2008).
• "Trying to Say Something About Trouble."  LAS Graduation Commencement Address.  Hilton Coliseum, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.  14 December 2007.
• “Reconsidering an Agricultural Childhood.”  North Dakota Living Magazine.  53.9 (March) 2007: 20-22.
• "Chores." Orion July/August 2006: 49-51.
• "Great Falls, 1976." Mid-American Review. 26.2 (2005): 164-175.
• "The Land Husband." Flyway: A Literary Review. 9.2 (2005): 60-71.
• "Hochzeit." Creative Nonfiction 27 (2005): 36-37.
• "The Perils of Travel." Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts 17.2 (2005): 29-40.
• "Pilgrim Soul." Crab Orchard Review 9.1 (2004): 145-157.
• "Agricultural Mysticism: Twenty-One Fragments on Desire" Mid-American Review 24.2 (2004): 36-50.
• "How to Enjoy a Nice Life in the Country." SubTerrain: Strong Words from a Polite Nation 4.38 (2003): 31-34.
• "Sustainable Agriculture." Writer’s Digest: The Year’s Best Writing Feb. 2004: 34-35, 38.
• "The Political Migrations of Wheat." New Letters: Immigrants & Travelers Issue 70.1 (2003): 31-39.
• "The Farmer’s Daughter: A Revision." Arts & Letters: Journal of Contemporary Culture 10 (2003): 100-107.

RECENT JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS: POETRY

• "Greyhound Days."  Red Weather 27 (2008):  33-34.
• “Bookmobile.”  Oberon Poetry Review 5 (2007): 91.
• “Chill Factor.”  RUNES, A Review of Poetry: Connection.  Winter (2007): 56-57.
• “Buoy” Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century.  13.2 (2007): 93.
• “Lazerland Outing with Boys” River Styx International 75 (2007): 79-80.
•  “Silos.”  Red Weather 26 (2007): 10-11.
• "To the Woman Who Tore the Word "Husband" from the Oxford English Dictionary." North American Review 290.5 (2005): 41.
• "On the Corner of Hunger & Thirst." Many Mountains Moving: A Literary Journal of Diverse Contemporary Voices 5.2 (2003): 6-7.
• "Usual Magic." Many Mountains Moving: A Literary Journal of Diverse Contemporary Voices 5.2 (2003): 5.
• "Drats." Connecticut Review 24.2 (2002): 71-72.
• "The Falling Man." River City 22.1 (2002): 111-112.
• "Beating up the Brother." Mississippi Review 30.1-2 (2002): 47-48.
• "Within Moments." North American Review 286.2 (2001): 5.

RECENT WORK IN BOOKS/ANTHOLOGIES

• “Chores.”  The Best Creative Nonfiction, Volume 1.  Ed.  Lee Gutkind.  New York: Norton, 2007: 44-52.
• "Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Weather." Prairie Weather: Harvest Book Series. Ed. Steven Semken. North Liberty, IA: Ice Cube Press, 2005: 45-54.
• "Picchiavamo Nostro Fratello." "Beating Up the Brother," Trans. To Italian. Andrea Sirotti and Giorgia Sensi. Men/Uomini: Ritratti Maschili Nella Poesia. 2004: 18-19.
• "This New Quiet." Sudden Stories: The Mammoth Book of Minuscule Fiction. Dubois, PA: Mammoth Books, 2003: 51.
• "Dylan's Lost Years." Sudden Stories: The Mammoth Book of Minuscule Fiction. Dubois, PA: Mammoth Books, 2003: 52.
• "Things Not Seen in a Rear View Mirror." Pushcart Prize Anthology XXVI: Best of the Small Presses. NY: Pushcart Press, 2001. 497-504.
• "To Kill a Deer." Dutiful Daughters: Reflecting on Our Parents as They Grow Old. Ed. Jean Gould. Seattle: Seal Press, 1999. 17-38.

Affiliations

• Associated Writing Programs
• ASLE -- Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
• American Association of University Women
• PEN USA
• PEN American Center

Degrees

• MA - Master of Arts (Creative Writing). Iowa State University, Iowa. 1993.
• MLA - Master of Liberal Arts. Moorhead State University, Minnesota. 1990.