Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: House of Water
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.matthewnienow.com/
CITY: Port Townsend
STATE: WA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.matthewnienow.com/aboutreadmore * https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/matthew-nienow * https://www.pw.org/content/matthew_nienow
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2010007502
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2010007502
HEADING: Nienow, Matthew
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100 1_ |a Nienow, Matthew
670 __ |a Two sides of the same thing, 2007: |b t.p. (Matthew Nienow)
670 __ |a House of water, 2016: |b ECIP t.p. (Matthew Nienow)
670 __ |a Amazon.com, viewed on 04-15-2016: |b (Matthew Nienow; lives in Port Townsend, Washington with his wife and two sons, where he builds boats and custom wooden paddle boards. His poems have appeared in Best New Poets (2007 and 2012), New England Review and Poetry, which awarded him a 2013 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. He has also received fellowships, grants and support from the National Endowment for the Arts (2011 Fellowship), the Elizabeth George Foundation, Artist Trust of Washington State, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and 4Culture of Seattle)
PERSONAL
Born 1983, in Los Angeles, CA; married; children: two sons.
EDUCATION:St. Olaf College, B.A.; University of Washington, M.F.A.; Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (Port Hadlock, WA), associate’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and woodworker. Builds boats and paddle boards.
AWARDS:Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, 2013. Grants, fellowships, and other awards from organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Elizabeth George Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Artist Trust of Washington State, and 4Culture of Seattle.
WRITINGS
Contributor of poems to anthologies, including Best New Poets. Contributor of poems to publications, including New England Review, Crazyhorse, Beloit Poetry Journal, Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, Willow Springs, and Poetry.
SIDELIGHTS
Matthew Nienow is a writer and woodworker based in Port Townsend, Washington. He is a Los Angeles, California, native, who grew up in Seattle, Washington, and moved to the Midwest to earn his bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College. Nienow returned to the Pacific Northwest to attend the University of Washington, from which he obtained an M.F.A. He went on to study traditional small craft construction at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. Nienow settled in Port Townsend, Washington, where he established himself as a builder of custom wooden paddle boards and wooden boats. Meanwhile, he has published poetry chapbooks, including The End of the Folded Map, The Smallest Working Pieces, and Two Sides of the Same Thing. His poems have appeared in two editions of the Best New Poets anthology, as well as in publications that include the New England Review, Crazyhorse, Beloit Poetry Journal, Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, Willow Springs, and Poetry. Nienow has been awarded grants, fellowships, and received other recognition from organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Elizabeth George Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Artist Trust of Washington State, and 4Culture of Seattle. In 2013 he was the recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship.
In 2016 Nienow released his first full-length collection of poems, House of Water. In the poems included in this volume, he describes the process of constructing a boat. Nienow mentions the implements he uses, including a chisel he calls the “makingbone,” as well as arcs and nails. He explains that each part of the process will likely be done and redone in order to get it right. Nienow also includes details about his personal life, noting that he has recently become a father. He discusses the concept of disappointment and his will to complete projects. Nienow observes the boat rising from its foundations as it nears completion. He tells of a mishap that occurs during construction. A leak opens somewhere in the boat’s bottom, and the water that spills out rearranges the items in the space where he has been working. However, Nienow perseveres, fixing the leak in the boat and ensuring that it is watertight. He explains that completing a functioning boat, despite any problems that occur during the building process, is what inspires him to continue building.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly offered a favorable assessment of House of Water. The contributor suggested: “Nienow’s lyrics fit together with watertight precision as he praises labor and the act of trudging through when disaster strikes.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, September 19, 2016, review of House of Water, p. 49.
ONLINE
Ink Node, https://www.inknode.com/ (July 14, 2017), author profile.
Matthew Nienow Home Page, http://www.matthewnienow.com (July 14, 2017).
Poetry Foundation Web site, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ (July 14, 2017), author profile.*
Matthew Nienow lives in Port Townsend, Washington with his wife and two sons, where he builds boats and custom wooden paddle boards. His poems have appeared in such venues as Best New Poets (2007 and 2012), New England Review and Poetry, which awarded him a 2013 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. He has also received fellowships, grants and support from the National Endowment for the Arts (2011 Fellowship), the Elizabeth George Foundation, Artist Trust of Washington State, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and 4Culture of Seattle.
Born in Los Angeles, Nienow spent most of his youth in Seattle before venturing off to the midwest for college. He holds a BA in English from St. Olaf College, an MFA in Poetry from the University of Washington and an Associates degree in Traditional Small Craft from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
Matthew Nienow is the author of three chapbooks: The End of the Folded Map (Codhill Press, 2011), The Smallest Working Pieces (Toadlily Press, 2009) and Two Sides of the Same Thing (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2007). His work has appeared in Best New Poets, Indiana Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Willow Springs and many other journals.
He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Foundation, the University of Washington and 4Culture. He is currently apprenticing as a wooden boatbuilder. Learn more at matthewnienow.com/blog.
Matthew Nienow
Poet Details
b. 1983
Matthew Nienow was born in Los Angeles and spent most of his youth in Seattle. He earned an MFA from the University of Washington and a degree in Traditional Small Craft from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. His work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, New England Review, Poetry, the Best New Poets anthology (2007 and 2012), and in three chapbooks.
Nienow has received awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Elizabeth George Foundation, Artist Trust, and many other organizations. He lives with his wife and two sons in Port Townsend, Washington where he makes his living building boats and custom wooden paddle boards.
Matthew Nienow is the author of three chapbooks: The End of the Folded Map (Codhill Press, 2011), The Smallest Working Pieces (Toadlily Press, 2009) and Two Sides of the Same Thing (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2007). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Crazyhorse, Narrative, New England Review, Poetry, and in two editions of the Best New Poets anthology (2007 and 2012).
He has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Foundation, Artist Trust (of Washington State), and Seattle's 4Culture. He lives in Port Townsend, Washington, with his wife and two sons, where he works on boats and other things made of wood.
QUOTED: "Nienow's lyrics fit together with watertight precision as he praises labor and the act of trudging through when disaster strikes."
House of Water
Publishers Weekly.
263.38 (Sept. 19, 2016): p49.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
House of Water
Matthew Nienow. Alice James (Consortium, dist.), $15.95 trade paper (100p) ISBN 978-1938584-64-0
In his debut collection, Nienow, a boat maker and 2013 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship recipient, navigates the existential void between
disappointment and determination as he documents the construction of a boat. A new father, Nienow finds his fortunes fluctuating in "the days of
one step forward, four steps back." Building something requires an array of tools, a hunger to create, and an unending wellspring of patience,
because everything will be "erased at least once, every line redrawn." To that end, Nienow echoes Robert Pinsky's "want bone" with his "makingbone,"
a chisel that "asks to be put to task." The metaphorical space of the poems becomes clear in the "work of nails and arcs/ from which the
boat rises." It's also there in moments of adversity, as when the boat springs a leak and "everything has been pushed to the middle of the room/
like a raft of upholstery in a pond of wood." These poems are meant to be read aloud; Nienow's lyrics fit together with watertight precision as he
praises labor and the act of trudging through when disaster strikes: "That it works makes me want to work. The work, it carves that want away."
(Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"House of Water." Publishers Weekly, 19 Sept. 2016, p. 49. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464352711&it=r&asid=d97163377dcf31f018aaa506cd861d07. Accessed 12 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A464352711