Name Carol Bachofner | Role Poet | |
Books Native Moons, Native Days: Poems, Daughter of the Ardennes Forest | ||
Poet Laureate of Rockland, Carol Bachofner,
Carol Willette ("Snow Moon") Bachofner (born 16 January 1947) is a Native American poet of Abenaki descent. She currently resides in Rockland, Maine. She is the co-founder and editor of the online literary journal, Pulse, established in 1997. She has also published several collections of her own poetry, including Native Moons, Native Days, as well as Drink from Your Own Wells: a guide to richer writing.
Contents
- Poet Laureate of Rockland Carol Bachofner
- Life and career
- Writing style and themes
- Publications
- References
Life and career
Bachofner recalls first becoming interested in writing poetry when she was six years old. She graduated from Vermont College with a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry and has been a professor of college-level English. She previously worked as a midwife; a labor and delivery RN; and as a freelance writer.
After becoming a runner-up in the 2006 Main Street Rag Poetry Chapbook Award Contest, Bachofner began to publish her poems. Many have appeared literary journals, including Prairie Schooner Journal, Main Street Rag, The Comstock Review, and Naugatuck River Review.
She has been nominated for several literary awards and honors, including Editor of the Year by the Wordcraft Circle of Writers & Storytellers in 1999 and Writer of the Year for her poetry by that same group in 2000.
In 2009, Bachofner was invited to be a presenter of poetry by indigenous writers at the Maine Literary Festival in Camden, Maine. She was also named in the 2009-10 publication of Marquis Who's Who and in 2011 made the short list (runner up) for individual works of poetry by the Maine Literary Festival. In April 2012, she was named Rockland Poet Laureate by the City of Rockland, Maine. She launched her latest collection, Native Moons, Native Days (2012) at the Three Poets Book Launch, hosted by the Camden Public Library. Bachofner's poem, "We Speak the White Man's Language", will appear in the anthology, Unraveling the Spreading Cloth of Time, edited by MariJo Moore and Trace A. DeMeyer.
Writing style and themes
Bachofner frequently writes themed collections. I Write In the Greenhouse includes poems about Maine and its people, including Edna St. Vincent Millay and Andrew Wyeth. Her other poems often describe Native American culture and tradition. This is an especially dominant theme in Native Moons, Native Days, in which she asks what makes poetry "Indian".