Biogeography

by Sandra Meek

Poetry. Scientists use the word "biogeography" for the geographical distribution of plant and animal life. Sandra Meek's Biogeography is a powerful metaphysical meditation on the connections between us humans and the larger natural world. Her elegant verse entwines public and private histories, unleashing them in fascinating habitats, ranging from a remote forest village accessible only by boat to the poet's own small backyard overrun with honeysuckle. Her lines travel these disparate landscapes, focusing on the wanton desecration of the land, while simultaneously seeking to inspire a new sense of wonder, a new registry of fresh and creative inspiration. In Meek's poems, the word and the world are inextricably linked. There is room for flamboyant faith and a new nomenclature of wonder. BIOGEOGRAPHY is Sandra Meek's third collection of poetry and is the winner of the Dorset Prize. Meek was also a four-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize. She was awarded Editors' Choice for the 2002 James Wright Award, given by Mid-American Review, and she won the Georgia Author of the Year Award in Poetry and the Peace Corps Writers Award for Poetry in 2003. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Shenandoah, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, while many others and have been featured on the websites Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and Poetry Net's "Poet of the Month." Meek is an associate professor of English, rhetoric, and writing at Berry College, where she teaches creative writing and contemporary literature.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Sandra Meek was born in Texas, grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, and has lived in Rome, Georgia, since 1996. Her most recent book of poems, Still (Persea Books, 2020), was named a “New & Noteworthy Poetry Book” by The New York Times Book Review. Of Still, The New York Times writes: “Meek’s prescient poetry has long dwelled darkly on humanity’s environmental impact; in this book, the tone has grown urgent, even apocalyptic.” Her seventh collection, Bind, is forthcoming from Persea Books in January 2027. Other titles include An Ecology of Elsewhere (Persea, 2016), Road Scatter (Persea, 2012), and Biogeography, winner of the Dorset Prize (Tupelo 2008), as well as an edited anthology, Deep Travel: Contemporary American Poets Abroad, awarded an Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal. Recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, the Poetry Society of America’s Lucille Medwick Memorial Award, three Georgia Author of the Year awards, and two Peace Corps Writers awards (Meek served in Manyana, Botswana, 1989-1991), she is Poetry Editor of the Phi Kappa Phi Forum and Dana Professor of English, Rhetoric, and Writing at Berry College.

Reviews

[lucien alexander “sasha” · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt some discomfort with the author, a white woman, talking so much about Suriname (where she apparently worked as a Peace Corps volunteer), and it's always hard for me to read work that deals with issues of place/race in a decontextualized way without thinking about who gets to tell what stories, etc. But generally I found this book really thoughtful and affecting, the poems sort of earthy and otherworldly at the same time. A lot of turns of phrase that I got really stuck on and reread again and again. I think it will definitely be worth a reread.