About | George Bilgere

George appears onstage with Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion.

Books

Cheap Motels of My Youth (Rattle Poetry, 2024)
Central Air (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022)
Blood Pages (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018)
Imperial (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014
The White Museum (Autumn House Press, 2010)
Haywire (Utah State University Press, 2006)
The Good Kiss (University of Akron Press, 2002)
Big Bang (Copper Beech Press, 1999)
The Going (University of Missouri Press, 1994)

About George

George came into national prominence in 2002 when then U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins chose his collection of poems, The Good Kiss, to win the University of Akron Poetry Prize. Collins then named George one of two Witter Bynner Fellows for 2002 and invited him to read at the Library of Congress. In 2006 Ed Field chose his book, Haywire, to win the prestigious May Swenson Poetry Award, and radio host Garrison Keillor began reading George’s poems on his daily National Public Radio broadcast, The Writer’s Almanac. The popularity of George’s poems on the show led to an appearance on Keillor’s long-running NPR radio show, A Prairie Home Companion.

George’s many honors include the 2022 Readers’ Choice Award from Rattle Magazine and the 2021 Editor’s Choice Award from New Ohio Review. He has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Pushcart Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Witter Bynner Foundation through the Library of Congress. He has won the May Swenson Poetry Award, the Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize, the Devins Award, the University of Akron Poetry Prize, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and the 2023 Rattle Chapbook Prize.

His poems have appeared in Poetry, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry, New Ohio Review, Field, Georgia Review, Southern Review, Sewanee Review, Ploughshares, New England Review, and elsewhere.

George is Distinguished Professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he lives with his lovely wife and two fine little boys.

For information about poetry readings or reprinting George’s poems, please contact him at:
gbilgere@jcu.edu

Sign up for news and updates
from George Bilgere:

WORDPLAY
George and John Donoghue have hosted their poetry radio broadcast, Wordplay, for fifteen years! You can listen to “the Car Talk of poetry” Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. on WJCU.

For information about poetry readings or reprinting George’s poems, please contact him at: gbilgere@jcu.edu

Sign up for news and updates from George Bilgere:

WORDPLAY George and John Donoghue have hosted their poetry radio broadcast, Wordplay, for fifteen years! You can listen to “the Car Talk of poetry” Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. on WJCU.

For information about poetry readings or reprinting George’s poems, please contact him at:
gbilgere@jcu.edu

Sign up for news and updates
from George Bilgere:

WORDPLAY
George and John Donoghue have hosted their poetry radio broadcast, Wordplay, for fifteen years! You can listen to “the Car Talk of poetry” Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. on WJCU.