Over the past three decades Judith Skillman has written and published numerous poems for books, journals, and anthologies.  She has collaborative translations from Portuguese, Italian, and French. Skillman's publications include FIELD, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, Poetry, The Northwest Review, and Midwest Quarterly.  She is the author of eleven books of poems.

From 1977 - 1978 she held a teaching assistantship at the University of Maryland, while working towards my masters degree in English Literature. She received the King County Arts Commission's Publication Prize in 1987, judged by Madeline DeFrees. This prize enabled her to find a publisher for her first book, "Worship of the Visible Spectrum" (Breitenbush Books.) In 1991 Skillman was awarded a Washington State Arts Commission Writer's Fellowship.

Three residencies during the 90's, one from the Hedgebrook Cottages for Women Writers, and two from the Centrum Foundation, allowed her to pursue her creative work while raising three children.  In addition, she received the Richard Hugo Memorial Scholarship in 1992 to attend the Centrum Writer's Conference. Other awards include the Stafford Award from the Washington Poet’s Association, First Prize in the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, and Honorable Mentions from The Journal and Kalliope.

Judith did graduate work in Romantic Literature and Translation Seminars at the University of Washington in the Department of Comparative Literature from 1994 - 1995. She was commissioned from 1994 - 1997 as a literary artist member of a three-person team to create an original artwork for the Kent Regional Justice Center. Her poem "The Jury" is etched in the windows of the jury waiting room.

Poems were nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 1984 and 2001. She also published two books of poems with Blue Begonia Press. The first, "Beethoven and the Birds," was funded by the press, and the second, "Storm," received additional support from the Eric Mathieu King Fund Award (Academy of American Poets).  Her collection "Red Town," published by Silverfish Review in 2001, received a Bumbershoot Literary Arts Award and was a finalist in the Washington Center for the Book Award.  "Circe's Island," was published by Silverfish Review Press (2003).

In 2003 she was a finalist in the David Robert Books Competition and her book, "Latticework," the result of a collaboration with textile artist Erika Carter, was published in 2004. "New and Selected Poems: 1986 - 2006" was published by Silverfish Review Press in 2006, with an introduction by David Kirby.

In August of 1999, Skillman was a translator in residence at the European College of Literary Translators and Interpreters in Seneffe, Belgium. She is a member of the Richard Hugo House and Associated Writing Programs (AWP).  Currently, she teaches writing at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle, Washington.

Read Judith's Ars Poetica.

Bibliography

Heat Lightning, New and Selected Poems 1986-2006

Silverfish Review Press, 2006

Coppelia, Certain Digressions

David Robert Books, 2006

Opalescence

David Robert Books, 2005

Latticework
David Robert Books, 2004

Circe's Island
Silverfish Review Press, 2003

Sweetbrier
Blue Begonia Working Signs Series, 2001

Red Town
Silverfish Review Press, 2001

Storm
Blue Begonia Press, 1998

Beethoven and the Birds
Blue Begonia Press, 1996

Worship of the Visible Spectrum
Breitenbush Books, 1986