New poem by MSU’s Pierce published in The Nation magazine

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University faculty member Catherine Pierce’s new poem now is featured in a national magazine, continuing her streak of publication accolades for poetry.

Pierce, co-director of MSU’s creative writing program and a professor in the Department of English, wrote “How Becoming a Mother Is Like Space Travel” in 2019. Her submission was published this week in The Nation magazine—a print magazine described as “the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States.” Founded in 1865 by abolitionists, The Nation continues to serves as a platform for political and cultural debate and also offers online content.

Pierce’s poem is available at: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/how-becoming-a-mother-is-like-space-travel/

Pierce said the poem’s inspiration came from listening to astronaut Scott Kelly’s talk in MSU’s Bettersworth Auditorium in February 2019.

“I’ve always been fascinated by space travel, and as Kelly spoke, I was writing down details I found especially interesting. Next to my notes about his intense focus as he left the earth’s atmosphere, I wrote, ‘like becoming a mother,’” Pierce said.

Pierce said she hopes her poetry will “resonate” with readers.

“I hope they'll find a connection there,” she said. 

This summer, Pierce also received a $3700 Literary Artist Fellowship for her poetry, supported in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 2019, Pierce received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2018, her poem “I Kept Getting Books About Birds” won the Pushcart Prize and was included in “The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses” anthology series.

Pierce has authored four books of poetry. They include “Danger Days,” which is forthcoming in October; “The Tornado Is the World” (Saturnalia 2016), winner of the 2017 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Prize; “The Girls of Peculiar” (Saturnalia 2012), winner of the 2013 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Prize; and “Famous Last Words” (Saturnalia 2008), winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize.

Pierce’s chapbook, “Animals of Habit,” was published in 2004 by Kent State University Press. Her poems also have appeared in The Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, Slate, Boston Review and The Cincinnati Review, among many other publications. For more, visit www.catherinepierce.net.

A native of Delaware, Pierce earned a Bachelor of Arts from Susquehanna University, Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State University, and doctorate from the University of Missouri.

The Department of English is online at www.english.msstate.edu.

MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,200 students, 325 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs, 14 master’s programs, and 27 undergraduate academic majors offered in 14 departments.  It also is home to the most diverse units for research and scholarly activities, including natural and physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities. For more details about the College of Arts and Sciences visit www.cas.msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.