ALTOONA, Pa. — A new book of poetry by Erin Murphy, professor of English at Penn State Altoona, was reviewed in the July 21 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
In his review of “Fluent in Blue,” Gary Ciocco observed that the poems “show a love of place, atmosphere, and the details of a full life, all in the service of gaining a greater, unflinching and unbound self-knowledge.”
Ciocco detailed the book’s subjects — pain, joy, the natural world, language, and racial and gender violence — and described the style as “direct and conversational.” He wrote that Murphy “is begging us to remember those — people, things, and realities — we might otherwise forget,” adding that “these poems will be with you and stay with you.”
Murphy is the author or editor of more than a dozen previous books, chapbooks and anthologies, with two additional books forthcoming from Salmon Poetry and Wesleyan University Press. She is the Poet Laureate of Blair County and is currently serving as Penn State’s inaugural Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow for the Big Ten Academic Alliance.