Nancy Krygowski
Poet
Nancy Krygowski’s first book of poems, Velocity, won the University of Pittsburgh Press’s Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Her second book, The Woman in the Corner, was published as part of the Pitt Poetry Series in 2020 and chosen as one of top 100 (or so) books of the year by Library Journal. She’s a recipient of awards from the PA Council on the Arts and the Pittsburgh Foundation, and residencies from several foundations, including Jentel, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Ragdale. Her poems have appeared in many journals and a few anthologies.
Krygowski’s ferocious wit and no-nonsense truth-telling thrill and sting. Taught that “tenderness was an apple and love a mouse’s sharp teeth,” the girl who felt “small and elsewhere” transforms into a flamboyant-voiced woman in the scorching present tense. Even looking back is less droopy nostalgia than an act of resistance. The Woman in the Corner is a woman who has lived, and struggled, and knows that struggle is often (though not always) beautiful.
Diane Seuss, Pulitzer Prize winner, frank: sonnets