VCUQatar Faculty Diana Woodcock publishes In the Shade of the Sidra Tree

January 9, 2011
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Diana Woodcock

Finishing Line Press announces the publication of In the Shade of the Sidra Tree, a chapbook of poems by VCUQatar Assistant Professor Diana Woodcock.

This collection of poetry—inspired by the six years Ms Woodcock has lived in the Arabian Gulf country of Qatar—follows her recently-released chapbooks: Mandala, dedicated to the Tibetans and published in 2009 by Foothills Publishing as part of its Poets for Peace series; and Travels of a Gwai Lo (Toadlily Press, 2009), a collection Woodcock crafted while living and traveling in China, Burma and Macau. The title poem from that chapbook was nominated by Toadlily for a Pushcart Prize.

Ms Woodcock’s first full-length collection, Swaying on the Elephant’s Shoulders, won the 2010 Vernice Quebodeaux International Poetry Prize for Women and is forthcoming from Little Red Tree Publishing. In 2009, she received first, second and third prizes from Artists Embassy International and an International Publication Award from Atlanta Review. Recipient of the 2007 Creekwalker Poetry Prize, her poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2008 (selected by Mark Strand), Nimrod, Crab Orchard Review, Atlanta Review and other journals and anthologies. In May 2010, her poetry was exhibited with Li Chevalier’s paintings at the Today Art Museum in Beijing, China. Currently teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, she has lived and worked in Tibet, Macau and Thailand.

The cover art for Woodcock’s new book features a painting by artist and Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Emeritus Charles Bleick, former associate dean of VCUQatar.

Finishing Line Press is a poetry publisher based in Georgetown, Kentucky. In addition to the Chapbook Series, it publishes the New Women’s Voices Series and sponsors the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition. Finishing Line Press and editor Leah Maines were featured in both the 2001 and 2002 Poet’s Markets.

Publication Date: November, 2010
Available for purchase at the VCUQatar Bookstore or by order online, http://www.finishinglinepress.com/

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