Poet Matthew Rohrer achieved significant recognition with his first volume of poems, 1995's A Hummock in the Malookas, which was chosen by Mary Oliver as the 1994 National Poetry Series Competition winner. In her comments on the selection, quoted in the W. W. Norton Company Online Catalog, Oliver observed that "What [Rohrer] tells us about his world, in language that is both lush and exact, is likely to be a haunting experience." Lines such as "Out of a window musical notes float in single file / past the windbreak of sage-colored trees" (from "news of the dead pope") and "The floor underneath the window / cries out when someone stands there to look out at the night / unless it is the girl with her lemons" (from "Hotel de L'Etoile") typify a style that many reviewers assessed as unique and praiseworthy.

Rohrer's poems, noted American Book Review critic Anthony Robbins, are within the surrealist tradition in that they use language to create an alternate reality. Robbins declared: "Rohrer uses the standard bag of Surrealist charms: The Egg, aberrant appearances of ice and flame, evil magicians, disconnected telephones, burning landscapes clipped from the brochure designed to make a Xanadu out of Normal." Robbins stressed the importance of verbal clarity in Rohrer's type of poetry, and commented that "Rohrer's diction and syntax are flat, prosaic, in keeping with his inclination to concoct minimalist narratives in the 'lyrics.'" He concluded: "Rohrer brings an original sensibility to this work. The gathering intelligence in the book is omnivorous and generous. Poems with this much energy are always a pleasure in company."

Reviewers for Choice and Publishers Weekly also noted Rohrer's intense visual imagery, though Choice critic L. Berk maintained that that quality was sometimes forced, as if the poet "has burdened his work with too dominant an imaginative cleverness at the expense of sincerity." Berk also commented on Rohrer's "peculiar romanticism," which he noted as particularly interesting for its absence of ego. A Hummock in the Malookas was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.

Rohrer, who was raised in Oklahoma, received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master of fine arts degree in poetry from the University of Iowa. His poems have appeared in many journals, including the Iowa Review, Verse, and the Denver Quarterly. In 1989 he received a Hopwood award for poetry, and he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 1996. Rohrer has taught at the Breadloaf Writers Conference and is an instructor of poetry for the Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City.

Related Authors

Related Poems