Catherine Tufariello: "Small Girl in a Gift Shop"

The VPR Poem of the Week is Catherine Tufariello’s “Small Girl in a Gift Shop,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2006 issue (Volume VII, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Catherine Tufariello’s first full-length collection of poems, Keeping My Name, won the Walt McDonald First-Book Award in Poetry and was published by Texas Tech University Press in 2004. The book was a Booklist Editors’ Choice recommendation, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and named the winner of the 2005 Poets’ Prize, given annually for the best book of verse published by an American in the preceding year. Keeping My Name is reviewed by Kathleen Mullen in the Spring/Summer 2006 issue of VPR, which also includes Mullen’s interview with Catherine Tufariello.

Tufariello’s two poetry chapbooks, Annunciations (Aralia Press) and Free Time (Robert L. Barth), both appeared in 2001. Her work has appeared in Hudson Review, Poetry, and Yale Italian Poetry (translations), as well as other literary magazines. Her poetry also has been chosen for many anthologies, including Longman literature anthologies, The POETRY Anthology: 1912-2002, The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry, The Zoo Anthology of Younger American Poets, 101 Contemporary Sonnets, and Western Wind.

Tuesday of each week “One Poet’s Notes” highlights an exceptional work by a poet selected from the archives of Valparaiso Poetry Review with the recommendation that readers revisit it. Please check the sidebar to view the list of poets and works that have been past “Poem of the Week” selections. Additionally, readers are reminded that VPR pages are best read with the browser font preference in which they were set, 12 pt. Times New Roman, in order to guarantee the stanza alignment and the breaks of longer lines are preserved.