Bruce Berger, whose book of poetry Facing the Music Conundrum published in 2014, has been honored with the Karen Chamberlain Lifetime Achievement Award for Poetry. Bruce received this award at the 2016 Headwaters Poetry Festival held April 15-17 in Gunnison, Colorado.

According to Dr. David J. Rothman, director of the graduate program in creative writing at Western State Colorado University, who was among those to select him for this honor, Bruce is “one of the preeminent poets living in the state” and “one of the leading poets of his generation in this country.” Rothman describes him as “phenomenally skilled and gifted.” Rothman explains that criteria for award winners include a clear “lifetime of commitment” to poetry and being “highly accomplished” in the art.

The late Karen Chamberlain was a poet and known supporter of writing and the arts, active in the Western states. Previous winners of the award named for her are Reg Saner and Jack Mueller.

Bruce resides in Aspen and his poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry, Orion, and The Hudson Review, and have been further anthologized and published internationally in Mexico, India, England, and Scotland. He was sent to India by the U.S. Department of State in 2008 to represent American poetry at an international writers conference

Purchase Facing the Music in our bookstore. Golden, Colorado-based Conundrum Press publishes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, focusing primarily on authors who live in the Rocky Mountain region. We are committed to their success.

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Written by Sapphire Heien, an editorial contributor with Conundrum Press.