Erika Meitner, a professor in the Department of English, published the following as part of a 32-page documentary folio collaboration with photographer Anna Maria Barry-Jester in the Summer issue of Virginia Quarterly Review 97.2 (Summer 2021):  the essay “Reimagining Magic City: Miami’s Built Environment at the Crossroads,” pp. 30–34; and the poems “Rare Moments are Few,” “Thumbs Up for the Mothership,” “An Enhanced Lifestyle,” “For Those in Peril on the Sea (Bruce’s Story),” “When the cathedrals were made of plastic,” and “Watch it Come Down,” pp. 35–61.  The publications were the result of research conducted with support from a Niles Grant from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.  

In addition, Meitner published “My List of True Facts,” The Believer 134 (February/March 2021):  76–77; “It’s Gunna Be All Right,” Orion 40.2 (Summer 2021):  43; “American Spirit,” EX/POST 3, posted May 2021, with Traci Brimhall; “Assembled Audience,” and “Jesus Is the Reason,” Shenandoah 70.2, posted July 1, 2021; and “A Brief Eschatological Investigation,” Poetry Society of America, posted April 14, 2021.  

For the last-mentioned poem Meitner won the 2021 Cecil Hemley Memorial Award; the award is given by the Poetry Society of America for a lyric poem that addresses a philosophical or epistemological concern. The poem and commentary on it by the award judge can be found here.