Erin Murphy, professor of English, won the 2016 Brick Road Poetry Press Prize. The award includes publication of her new book of poems, Assisted Living.
Assisted Living is comprised of seventy-two demi-sonnets, a seven-line poetic form that Murphy devised. The poems encompass the life span experience, ranging from childhood to aging and care-giving. A section is devoted to poems based on Murphy’s late mother-in-law, Ann Palmer De Prospo, an accomplished pianist who was the leader of the Major Bowes All-Girl Band in the 1930s. De Prospo died in 2013 at the age of 99.
Murphy is the author or editor of eight previous books, most recently Creating Nonfiction: Twenty Essays and Interviews with the Writers and Ancilla.