Eric Nelson
News
September, 2023: Horse Not Zebra received Honorable Mention in the 2023 Brockman-Campbell Award for the best book of poetry by a North Carolina writer. From the thirty books submitted, judge Mihaela Moscaliuc chose one winner and two honorable mentions. Her comments on Horse Not Zebra: Whether having at the center of the narrative or as subject of reflection a bear, a dog, an old couple, a campfire, or a bar of soap, these poems unfold with such conversational elegance, wit, self-deprecating humor, and tenderness, it’s hard not to fall in love with them. I admire Nelson’s memorable approaches to human fallibility and vulnerability, the delight and craft with which he honors the ordinary, the intimate sense of place he creates with a few brushstrokes, the warmth of his tonal inflections.
--Mihaela Moscaliuc https://www.mmoscaliuc.com/
May 1, 2023: Horse Not Zebra received Honorable Mention in the Poetry category of The Eric Hoffer Book Awards. The judges' comments: Flights of imagination characterize a poet shifting from a simple neighborhood setting, woods, or basement—another world or future similar but different to the version of the moment we thought we were having. This realization causes one to reel back the focus a little this way or another. Evolving, speculative poems arrive with rich visual detail, minute inspection, and contemplation of the very period itself. It's sometimes fun, sometimes weird, always thoughtful, reaching, seeing, doing the things good poetry does: taking leaps with the language.
April 1, 2023: Horse Not Zebra won the 2023 da Vinci Eye category of the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. The da Vinci Eye recognizes outstanding cover art and design. The cover art of Horse Not Zebra features the painting "Shake the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart" by Laura Berendsen Hughes, cover design by Diane Lockward of Terrapin Books.
September 28, 2023: Georgia Southern University, Savannah, GA
April 16, 2023: Scuppernong Bookstore, Greensboro, NC. 2:00 pm
November 15, 2022: Punch Bucket Lit Reading Series. Cellarest Pub/Brewery, West Asheville, NC. 6:30 pm (in-person with Tommy Hays)
October 23, 2022: Plays Well with Others Reading Series. Ginger's Revenge Brewery, Asheville, NC. 4:00 pm
October 16, 2022: In Conversation: Eric Nelson & Ken Chamlee discussing their new books. Malaprop's Bookstore, Asheville. 5:00 pm
August 7, 2022: Poetrio. Malaprop's Bookstore, Asheville, NC. 4:30 pm (hybrid--in-person & streamed)
June 30, 2022: Gerton Community Center. Gerton, NC. 7:00 pm (in-person)
June 8, 2022: In The Company of Writers Series. Brandy Bar, Hendersonville, NC. 7:00 pm (in-person with open mic to follow)
April 23, 2022: Celo Community Pavilion. Burnsville, NC. 4:00 pm (in-person with Anne Maren-Hogan & Pat Riviere-Seel)
January 13, 2022: Carolina Poets virtual reading
