Bio:
Thorpe Moeckel’s most recent works are the nonfiction book Watershed Days: Adventures (A Little Thorny & Familiar) in the Home Range, and a trilogy of long poems, Arcadia Road. He is author of the three prior books of poetry — Odd Botany, Making a Map of the River, and Venison. Chapbooks include Meltlines, The Guessing Land, and Off Owl’s Head. Recently he co-edited the Virginia edition of Best Creative Nonfiction of the South.
Thorpe is editing two books, a middle grade novel and a lyric nonfiction, that are slated for publication in 2019.
Moeckel’s writings have appeared widely in journals, magazines, and anthologies. Awards include Jacob Javits Fellowship, the Henry Hoyns Fellowship, the George Garrett Award from The Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Kenan Visiting Writership at UNC-Chapel Hill, a Nonfiction Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship. He has worked as a river guide, a handyman, in restaurants, retail, residential construction, and as an adventure-based counselor for court-ordered teens. He lives in Virginia and teaches in the MFA Program at Hollins University, where he has served as Director of the Jackson Center for Creative Writing. Each summer, he is lucky to lead a week-long river trip for the amazing kids involved with Jacobs Ladder.
Books:
Please click on covers to the left for more information on Thorpe’s books.
Here are some anthologies that include Moeckel’s work: From the Fishouse, Field Work, The Ecopoetry Anthology, A Face to Meet the Faces, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol. 3, Poems and Their Making: A Conversation, Going Down Grand: Poems from the Canyon, Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry, and Monticello in Mind: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Jefferson.
Selected Writings Available Online:
Poetry — At Length, Connotation Press, from the fishouse, The Poetry Foundation, NEA Writer’s Corner, Cerise Press, Reading the River, The Writer’s Almanac
Prose — “Yondering,” “A Day on the Gauley,”, “Cold Mist Burning”, “A Hog Butchering”, “Dark April Light”, “The Windfall”, “Small Waves”
Review — of Watershed Days at Fjords, of Arcadia Road at The Rumpus, of Making a Map of the River at Blackbird,
Interview — The Rumpus
Events:
Reading and Class Visit: Hampden Sydney College, October 6, 2018
Older:
Reading/Presentation: Montgomery Bell Academy, Nashville, TN: Fri., October 9, 2016
Southern Festival of the Book, Nashville, 2016: You Can Get There from Here: Memoirs of Finding Your Self Someplace Else
Leigh Ann Henion, Thorpe Moeckel, Andra Watkins
Sunday, October 11, 2:00-3:30 pm
Room 16, Legislative Plaza
Reading, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA: Wed., October 21, 7:45 PM
Reading, Radford University, Radford, VA: Thursday, November 19, 7PM
Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, VA: reading with Chard deNiord and Sally Keith, Friday, March 18, 4PM and Sunday, March 20th, from 3 – 4 PM at Montalto, across the road from Monticello (in a new, beautiful auditorium), to celebrate the launch of Monticello in Mind: 50 Contemporary Poets on Jefferson.
THORPE MOECKEL 