Peter Covino
Short bio
Poet-translator-editor Peter Covino is an associate professor in the English and Creative Writing PhD Program at the University of Rhode Island.
He is a well-published scholar and author of the poetry collections, The Right Place to Jump and Cut Off the Ears of Winter both from W. Michigan University Press, New Issues, among other works.
His prizes include a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, a Fellowship from the Richmond American International University of London, the PEN American/Osterweil Award, and the Frank O’Hara Prize for his chapbook Straight Boyfriend.
He is one of the founding editors/trustees of Barrow Street Press.
Awards
Peter’s most significant literary recognitions include a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship; the PEN American/Osterweil Award for Emerging Poets, and a URI Faculty Mentoring Award, among others.
Press
- Fellowship Winner, National Endowment of the Arts in Translation for What Sex is Death? Dario Bellezza – Selected Poems, FY 2019.
- “Peter Covino: Il salto è l’immaginazione” di Andrea Galgano. Atelier Criticism. 31 October 2018. Online.
- Peter Covino – Tre Inediti (Traduzione Di Francesca Borrione) Atelier Poesia. 5 November 2018. Online.
Longer bio
After a fourteen-year career as a professional social worker in the fields of foster care and AIDS services in NYC, poet, translator, and editor Peter Covino is currently an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at the U of Rhode Island. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in poetry writing, Contemporary, Avant-garde, and Epic Poetry, Ethnic Studies, and Translation Studies. He is the author of the poetry collections, The Right Place to Jump; and Cut Off the Ears of Winter both from W. Michigan University Press, New Issues. His prizes include a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship; the PEN American/Osterweil Award; the Paterson Poetry Prize for Literary Excellence; the Frank O’Hara Prize for his chapbook Straight Boyfriend; and a University of Rhode Island Faculty Mentoring Award.
Peter’s scholarly work includes a coedited essay collection on Italian American Literature from Bordighera Press/City University of New York, and critical essays in books and journals from the Modern Languages Association, the University of Wisconsin Press, the University of Michigan Press, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, Lambda Literary, and Words without Borders, among others.
Recent residencies and grants include a fellowship from Richmond American International University of London – Rome Programme, the American Academy in Rome, and the Nida Translation Institute. His poems are widely published in America and Italy and have appeared in such journals as the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a day, American Poetry Review, Atelier, Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Community RAI Italian Television, Gulf Coast, Leggendaria, the Paris Review, Seneca Review, Western Humanities Review, and the Yale Review. He is one of the founding editors of Barrow Street Press, which under his direction has published more than fifty-five poetry collections.
Peter received his B.A. in English and Romance Languages from Amherst College, an M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University, an M.A. from City College of NY, and a PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Utah.