Kara Candito
http://karacandito.com/Poet Kara Candito was born in Boston. She earned a BA at Loyola University, an MFA at the University of Maryland at College Park, and a PhD at Florida State University.
Her poems offer portrayals of the self and others, with particular attention to themes of power, distance, and intimacy. When Candito’s Spectator was chosen as the May 2014 selection for the Rumpus Poetry Book Club, she participated in an online chatroom interview with several readers. In that interview, Candito stated, “I’m fascinated with the voyeurism that defines so much of contemporary culture. We watch others, we watch ourselves, and share images of ourselves being watched. Revisiting the stories and myths that encompass many of the poems in Spectator necessitated a kind of voyeurism, too.”
She is the author of Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize–winner Spectator (2014) and Prairie Schooner Book Prize–winner Taste of Cherry (2009). Her poetry has been anthologized in A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (2012, edited by Stacey Lynn Brown and Oliver de la Paz) and Best New Poets 2007 (edited by Natasha Trethewey).
Her additional honors include a Pushcart Prize and scholarships and awards from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Council for Wisconsin Writers, the Vermont Studio Center, the MacDowell Colony, the Santa Fe Arts Institute, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.
Candito has served as co-curator of the reading series Monsters of Poetry and as editor in chief of the Driftless Review and has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
Her poems offer portrayals of the self and others, with particular attention to themes of power, distance, and intimacy. When Candito’s Spectator was chosen as the May 2014 selection for the Rumpus Poetry Book Club, she participated in an online chatroom interview with several readers. In that interview, Candito stated, “I’m fascinated with the voyeurism that defines so much of contemporary culture. We watch others, we watch ourselves, and share images of ourselves being watched. Revisiting the stories and myths that encompass many of the poems in Spectator necessitated a kind of voyeurism, too.”
She is the author of Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize–winner Spectator (2014) and Prairie Schooner Book Prize–winner Taste of Cherry (2009). Her poetry has been anthologized in A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (2012, edited by Stacey Lynn Brown and Oliver de la Paz) and Best New Poets 2007 (edited by Natasha Trethewey).
Her additional honors include a Pushcart Prize and scholarships and awards from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Council for Wisconsin Writers, the Vermont Studio Center, the MacDowell Colony, the Santa Fe Arts Institute, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.
Candito has served as co-curator of the reading series Monsters of Poetry and as editor in chief of the Driftless Review and has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.