Doug Sutton-Ramspeck, Associate Professor of English, has published a new book of poems.
Original Bodies won the Michael Waters Poetry Prize in 2013 and has now been published by Southern Indiana Review Press.
“Original Bodies explores the primitive mindset, the ancient brain that exists within us all,” said Sutton-Ramspeck, who writes under the name Doug Ramspeck. “Most of us don't believe that three crows in a black willow tree portend death, that a dry steam bed suggests that a spouse or relative will have a miscarriage, that we can read our lives in the entrails of a pickerel frog or in a hognose snakeskin found draped beside a river bank. But we do wish that we might gain some small control over our destinies. Residing half in the real world and half in the dream world, the poems accentuate the slipperiness we often feel between the corporeal and incorporeal, which is the source of both our fears and longings.”
Sutton-Ramspeck teaches creative writing and other English courses at Ohio State Lima. He is also the current coordinator of the Writing Center, where Ohio State Lima students can go to improve their writing skills free of charge.
Sutton-Ramspeck is the author of four previous poetry collections. His most recent book, Mechanical Fireflies, received the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize. His first book, Black Tupelo Country, received the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry. His poems have appeared in journals that include Slate, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and AGNI. He is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award.