Name Suzanne Rancourt | Role Poet | |
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Books Billboard in the Clouds: Poems | ||
Suzanne Rancourt
Suzanne S. Rancourt (born 1959) is a Native American poet and veteran of both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army. She was born and raised in west central Maine and is an elder of the Abenaki Bear Clan. She has written a collection of poetry called Billboard in the Clouds, which won the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas First Book Award in 2001, and some of her other work also appears in The Journal of Military Experience, Volume II. Her work has also been published in the literary journals Callaloo and The Cimarron Review, as well as many other anthologies.
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Rancourt has a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from Vermont College and a Master of Science in Educational Psychology from University at Albany, SUNY. She is currently living in Hadley, New York. Rancourt has coordinated Pow wows, and held workshops on topics including drum making. She has worked as a counselor for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in New York and has also worked as a parent education specialist for a Head Start program in the northern part of the state. Among other things, Rancourt is also a singer/songwriter, a personal fitness trainer, a percussionist, an herbal educator, and a dance instructor.
On Billboard in the Clouds
Suzanne Rancourt's poetry in Billboard in the Clouds addresses at least three themes. Poems about childhood include descriptions of nature, her parents, and grandparents. Ancestral poems cover stories Rancourt has heard conveying deep connections between her people and their land. Finally, poems about contemporary life cover such topics as Rancourt's life with her son, her current home, and her military experience. Rancourt's poems have been praised for their vivid imagery and simple, elegant style.