Erin Murphy, Professor of English at Penn State Altoona
ALTOONA, Pa. — Erin Murphy, professor of English at Penn State Altoona, gave a presentation as part of a conference held at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
“Women Who Create 2025: The Feminine in the Arts,” sponsored by the London Arts-Based Research Centre, was held in Cambridge, England, and online March 29 through 31. Murphy presented the virtual talk “Inventing a Poetic Form: A Reading and Discussion of Demi-Sonnets.”
She discussed her invention of the demi-sonnet, a seven-line poetic form. Reviewers have described demi-sonnets as “nimble,” “ingenious” poems that “pack a powerful punch” and “cross the boundaries of what poets can do with form, musicality, and meaning.”
One of Murphy’s recent demi-sonnets, "White Space," is featured in the latest issue of the journal “RockPaperPoem.”
Murphy is the author or editor of more than a dozen previous books, chapbooks, and anthologies, including three collections of demi-sonnets: “Word Problems,” “Assisted Living” and “Taxonomies.” She is the poet laureate of Blair County, poetry editor of “The Summerset Review,” and Penn State’s inaugural Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow for the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
