Bio
Robin Kemp was born in New Orleans on Mardi Gras Day. A former print journalist and CNN newswriter, she holds degrees in English and creative writing from Georgia State and the University of New Orleans, and is finishing her Ph.D. at Georgia State, where she teaches writing. Her poetry has appeared in New Orleans Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Texas Review, and elsewhere, and has been anthologized in Rites of Spring (Pecan Grove Press), Maple Leaf Rag III (Portals Press), and Letters to the World: Poems from the WOM-PO Listserv (Red Hen Press). She lives outside Atlanta until she can get closer to the water.
Praise for This Pagan Heaven
“In This Pagan Heaven, Robin Kemp displays her ability to present a powerful and persuasive voice that maintains authenticity and authority, whether the poem is written in traditional form or free verse. In love sonnets, a political pantoum, an extended free-verse sequence and other poems about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on her home city of New Orleans, as well as various compelling pieces on additional topics, Kemp’s lovely lines address personal or public concerns in language demonstrating both formal skill and a convincing conversational ease,resulting in poetry readers will find energetic and engaging.” —Edward Byrne, Valparaiso Poetry Review
“There are powerful messages in the music of This Pagan Heaven. The measured notes of sonnets carry the songs of love’s complications, rewards, and the inevitable downbeat of loss. Soulful dirges rise from the tragic streets of a drowned New Orleans. Kemp’s poems move through strict forms into jazzy improvisations without missing a beat or striking false notes. A distinguished company of women poets has been testing traditional forms and Kemp enters their number with this heartfelt work, clearly underscored by her craft and intelligence.” —Eloise Klein Healy
Buy your copy now or ask your local bookseller for This Pagan Heaven!