CM Burroughs Poetry Collection, Master Suffering, Longlisted for National Book Awards

The National Book Foundation was founded in 1989 to administer the National Book Awards, which has been one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the country since 1950.

 

English and Creative Writing Associate Professor CM Burroughs’ second poetry collection, Master Suffering, has been longlisted as a top ten contender for the National Book Award for Poetry. The National Book Foundation was founded in 1989 to administer the National Book Awards, which has been one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the country since 1950.

Master Suffering pendulates between yield and command; the bodies of this book are supplicant yet seething—they want nothing more than to survive. But how does a woman survive? One’s own healthy body helps, but illness is one of the masters of this book. Faith can be a salve for the inscrutable ailments of the body, but God is unreliable in these poems. The female bodies of Master Suffering want power; they want to control and to correct the suffering they witness and withstand.

Burroughs’ is also the author of The Vital System (Tupelo Press, 2012). Burroughs has been awarded fellowships and grants from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Cave Canem Foundation. And she has received commissions from the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Warhol Museum to create poetry in response to art installations.

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