Bryce Berkowitz
Writer. Professor.
Bryce Berkowitz is a poet, screenwriter, and cattle dog owner.
He's the recipient of the Austin Film Festival AMC TV Pilot Award, the writersXwriters fellowship, Roadmap Writers' Award, and he's a two-time finalist for the NBC TV Writers' Program.
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His first collection of poems, Bermuda Ferris Wheel, won the 42 Miles Press | Indiana U. Poetry Award. His individual poems have been selected for anthologies, awards, and publications, including Best New Poets (2017, 2021), New Poetry from the Midwest, The Missouri Review (including the TMR's Miller Audio Prize), The Sewanee Review, Chicago Sun Times, Ninth Letter, Southern Indiana Review, Third Coast, among others.
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He co-directs the MFA Creative Writing program at Butler University. Prior to academia, he worked at a literary agency in Los Angeles, as well as NBC and CBS. Prior to that, he waited tables, bartended, and booked touring hip hop acts for five years. For a large part of his youth, he painted graffiti, made music, and skateboarded. He's a sucker for subcultures, working-class stories, and buying more books than he'll ever read in his lifetime. He attended SIU Carbondale, John A. Logan Community College, Columbia College Chicago, UCLA, and West Virginia University. Currently, he is at work on a dark-comedy crime novel and a second poetry collection.
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Listen to a reading to music:
Book
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Bermuda Ferris Wheel | 42 Miles Press | Indiana U. Poetry Award Winner
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Order from 42 Miles Indiana U. Press or on Amazon​​
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Select Awards/Publications
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Poetry
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"Atmosphere in Our Bullshit Little Town" The Normal School and selected for A Flame Called Indiana
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"Microwaving Sub Sandwiches in the Trailer" Missouri Review and Best New Poets (2021 selected by Kaveh Akbar)
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"Keep Your Plastic Flowers, I'm Not Dead Yet" The Missouri Review
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“The Perfect Time to Walk Out of Someone’s Life.” The Sewanee Review
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"Thank You, Forgiveness" Best New Poets (2017 selected by Natalie Diaz), reshared by @poetryisnotaluxury (2x)
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"After Running into My Student at Therapy" Southeast Review
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"The View From Here" the minnesota review
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“Morning in West Virginia” The Fourth River *Selected for New Poetry From the Midwest
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"All That Matters." Nashville Review *Best of the Net Nomination
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"Hepburn Manor, Los Angeles" The Missouri Review (Miller Audio Prize)
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The above poem is a version read to music and featured on a short podcast
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"Skate or Die, An Elegy for Tanner" Saranac Review
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"The Writers' Bench in Gapped Couplets" The Common
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"The Good Life" Cimarron Review *Pushcart Prize Nomination
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"The Perfect Time to Leave One Home for Another." Poet Lore *Pushcart Prize Nomination
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"Yeah, Sure" and "We're Not There Yet." Cola Literary Review
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"In My Little Book of Things I Write Down." Barrow Street
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"After Graffiti, Northside Carbondale." Hot Metal Bridge
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"Sixth Grade Autobiography." Hawai'i Pacific Review
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“Just Once.” Ninth Letter
Screenwriting​​
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Austin Film Festival, AMC TV Pilot Award winner
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​Roadmap Writers' TV Pilot winner
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WritersXWriters Fellowship Recipient
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Outstanding Screenplays, Runner Up
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Austin Film Festival, One-Hour TV Drama Award, Top 20 (2x)
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Austin Film Festival, Warner Bros. Pilot Award, Top 20 (2x)
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NBC TV Writers' Program, Top 10 finalist (2x)
Fiction
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"Payback for Mongoose Charlie." Big Muddy Short Story Winner *Pushcart Prize Nomination
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“Stitch.” Permafrost
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Hybrid: Creative Writing Meets Professional Writing
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"In Doubt." The Laurel Review
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"Everything is So Sun-Drenched and Awful." The Laurel Review *Pushcart Prize Nomination
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“Broad Ripple, Toxic Masculinity, & The Uber Driver That Asked About the Snow.” The McNeese Review
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“Dear Standard Parts of a Workplace Letter—the hell do you know(?).” The McNeese Review
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Nonfiction
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“My Mother Made Popcorn in a Casserole Dish.” Permafrost
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“Hello, Chicago.” Chicago Sun Times​