Poet Matthew Cooperman to Give Public Reading March 4

American poet Matthew Cooperman will read selections of his poetry at Night Heron Books, located at 107 E. Ivinson St., Friday, March 4, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Born in Connecticut, Cooperman was raised in the Bay Area of California. He attended Colgate University, the University of Colorado and Ohio University, earning his undergraduate degree, master’s degree and Ph.D., respectively.

He is the author of four full-length poetry collections: “Imago for the Fallen World”; “Still: of the Earth as the Ark which Does Not Move”; “A Sacrificial Zinc”; and “Spool.”

The first book he wrote, “A Sacrificial Zinc,” won the Lena Miles Wever-Todd Prize, and his latest book, “Spool,” won the New Measure Prize. Cooperman’s poetry also has been featured in multiple literary journals.

Renowned American poets have praised “Spool.”

“’Spool’ is a hive of words continuously active and also continuously threatened with a sort of colony collapse. Written in conversation with past greats such as Shakespeare, Milton, Hopkins, ‘Spool’ is a way of inhabiting our present,” says Rae Armantrout, Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry.

“Carefully wrought, these taut, concentrated poems move together on a fundamental level between limit and enlargement, impatience and watching, intention and play. Cooperman's ‘Spool’ is remarkable,” says Pam Rehm, National Poetry Series award winner.

Cooperman lives with his wife and two children in Fort Collins, Colo., and teaches English at Colorado State University. He also edits the Colorado Review.