Robin Beth Schaer

(she/her/hers)

  • Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing

Areas of Study

Education

  • BA, religion, Colgate University, 1993
  • MFA, creative writing, Columbia University, 2005

Biography

Robin Beth Schaer is visiting assistant professor of creative writing. She is the author of the poetry collection, Shipbreaking, published in 2015. Her poetry, essays, and criticism have appeared in numerous publications, including Tin House, Paris Review, Bomb Magazine, Orion Magazine, and Guernica.

Her work has been recognized with grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Saltonstall Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Schaer has taught writing courses at Columbia University, the College of Wooster, Cooper Union, and the New School. For five years, she worked at the Academy of American Poets as a program director. She worked as a deckhand aboard the Tall Ship Bounty, a 180-foot full-rigged ship that was lost during Hurricane Sandy.

  • National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 2021
  • Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, 2020
  • MacDowell Colony Fellowship, 2016
  • Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, 2016
  • Yaddo Fellowship, 2012
  • Djerassi Resident Artists Program Fellowship, 2012
  • Saltonstall Foundation Fellowship, 2012 and 2007
  • Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award, 2010
  • Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship, 2006

  • Shipbreaking (Anhinga, 2015)
  • New Poetry from the Midwest, editors: Hannah Stephenson and Rita Mae Reese (New American Press, 2020)
  • Starting Today, editors: Rachel Zucker and Arielle Greenberg (University of Iowa Press, 2010)
  • Best New Poets, editor: Natasha Trethewey (University of Virginia Press, 2007)

  • “Holdfast,” Academy of American Poets: Poem-a-Day, spring 2019
  • “The Long Now,” Territory, summer 2018
  • “24 Hours in Ohio,” GOOD, fall 2016
  • “Nomad,” Academy of American Poets: Poem-a-Day, fall 2015
  • “Middle Flight,” the Awl, summer 2015
  • “Coal” and “Wreck,” the Literary Review, summer 2015
  • “Fathom,” the Awl, winter 2015
  • “Natural History,” At Length, winter 2015
  • “White Matter,” Southeast Review, winter 2014
  • “Messenger,” Guernica, winter 2014
  • “At Home” and “At Sea,” Drunken Boat, winter 2013
  • “Disturbance” Slice, fall 2012
  • “Fear” and “Yellowjackets” Tin House, spring 2011
  • “Falling Overboard,” Paris Review, fall 2012

Spring 2022

Nature Writing — CRWR 245
Creative Writing Capstone Seminar — CRWR 490

Notes

Robin Beth Schaer Selected for Creative Capital 2022 Shortlist

May 10, 2022

Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Robin Beth Schaer was selected for Creative Captial's 2022 Shortlist for her current project, a collection of poems and essays that explore art, erasure, and atrocity. 

Poem by Robin Beth Schaer is Set to Music for Chamber Choir

March 1, 2022

Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Robin Beth Schaer's poem "Holdfast" was set to music by composer Matthew Recio in a composition for vocal chamber choir. The piece was recently performed by the Chicago ensemble "Stare at the Sun." A recording is available online. 

Robin Beth Schaer's poem adapted for chamber choir

October 18, 2021

A commissioned musical adaption of Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Robin Beth Schaer's poem “Holdfast” was composed by Matthew Recio and was  performed on October 23 and 24 by the vocal chamber choir Stare at the Sun in Chicago.

Robin Beth Schaer publishes in New Poetry from the Midwest

August 5, 2021

Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Robin Beth Schaer's poem "The Long Now" was just published in the anthology New Poetry from the Midwest from New American Press. The expansive collection brings together work by 171 poets across the Midwest. Schaer's poem is a dialogue between a mother and child about the night sky and mortality.

Robin Beth Schaer Publishes Essay

July 11, 2020

Robin Beth Schaer, visiting assistant professor of creative writing, published an essay in Jewish Currents about the solace Pablo Neruda’s “Keeping Quiet” has provided during quarantine and the portrait of reckoning and transformation that the poem offers.

Robin Beth Schaer's Poem Chosen as Feature

May 8, 2020

Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Robin Beth Schaer's poem "Holdfast" was chosen by former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith for a National Poetry Month feature on the Academy of American Poets' website.

Robin Beth Schaer Receives Ohio Arts Council Award

February 12, 2020

Robin Beth Schaer, visiting assistant professor of creative writing, was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2020 in the poetry category.

News

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