Diane Lockward is the editor of The Strategic Poet: Honing the Craft (Terrapin Books, 2021), The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basics (Terrapin Books, 2018), The Crafty Poet II: A Portable Workshop (Terrapin Books, 2016) and The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop (rev. edition, Terrapin Books, 2016). Her publications include four full-length collections of poetry, most recently, The Uneaten Carrots of Atonement (Wind Publications, 2016). Her earlier books are Temptation by Water, What Feeds Us, which received the 2006 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize, and Eve’s Red Dress. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Against Perfection and Greatest Hits: 1997-2010. Her poems have been anthologized in Poetry Daily: 366 Poems from the World’s Most Popular Poetry Website, Garrison Keillor's Good Poems for Hard Times, The Poet's Cookbook,and elsewhere. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Beloit Poetry Journal, Southern Poetry Review, Harvard Review, Poet Lore, and Prairie Schooner, and been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer’s Almanac, and Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry. Her awards include a Poetry Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the 2006 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Book Prize, First Place in the 2012 Naugatuck River Review poetry contest, and a 2013 Woman of Achievement award.
Diane has been a featured poet at a number of festivals, such as the Warren County Poetry Festival, Inkberry Festival, Long Branch Poetry Festival, Walt Whitman Poetry Festival, 2006 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, 2007 Burlington Book Festival, the 2010 Caffe Lena Poetry Festival, the 2014 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, the 2015 Betty June Silconas Poetry Festival, and the 2016 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. She was also a featured poet at the 2005 Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching; a workshop presenter at the 2003 and 2006 New Jersey State Council of Teachers of English Conferences; a keynote speaker at the 2007 Language Arts Leadership Association Conference; a panelist at the 2009 New Jersey College English Association Conference; a workshop presenter at the 2015 Bay to Ocean Conference, the 2015 Amherst Poetry Festival, and the 2016 Massachusetts Poetry Festival; and a presenter at the 2016 New Hampshire Poetry Festival.
In 2014 Diane served as a judge for the Dogfish Head Book Contest. She also served in 2013 as the judge for the first annual Lena Shull Book Contest, sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society. She has been a reader for The Word Works Washington Prize, a judge for the National Council of Teachers of English poetry contest for high school students, a judge for the Valparaiso University students contest, and a judge for the 2010 Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets' chapbook contest. She was the Founder and Director of the Poetry Festival: A Celebration of Literary Journals which she ran for twelve years. For the past fifteen years she has also organized Girl Talk: A Reading in Celebration of Women's History Month.
On May 17, 2009, Diane was appointed Poet Laureate of West Caldwell, NJ. In 2015 she founded Terrapin Books, a small press for poetry books, and serves as its editor and publisher.
Diane Lockward is available for readings, workshops, school visits, and festivals.
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