Shelley Puhak

Shelley Puhak is a poet and writer from Maryland. She is the author of two books of poetry, the more recent of which is Guinevere in Baltimore, winner of the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. Her poems appear in the Cincinnati Review, the Missouri Review, Verse Daily, and other journals and anthologies.

Reading List

Portrait of the artist as a mommy

Shelley Puhak  | 
Issue 70.1 Fall 2021

mommy of the stringy hair, of the jawing mouth. mommy of the educational field trip. mommy of the ruins. mommy down the staircase under cobblestone, limestone, marble, brick. mommy pointing—look! medieval city walls, mosaic of a Roman bath, Neolithic row houses and in their centers, fire pits. in the pit of mommy’s stomach. mommy […]

Portrait of the artist speaking Viking

Shelley Puhak  | 
Issue 70.1 Fall 2021

She did what we have all threatened to—I’ll beat my head against this windshield, just watch me! I spotted the woman, parallel parking with gas-guzzlers honking, shrilling shut up! shut up! I can’t fit! just before her forehead burst open. The smear on the windshield— a Viking might have named it rage-blossom. And who hasn’t […]