Books

In addition to his new book Empire, James Armstrong is the author of two poetry books, Monument in a Summer Hat (New Issues Press, 1999) and Blue Lash (Milkweed Editions, 2006) and is the co-author of a book of essays, Nature, Culture and Two Friends Talking (North Star Press 2015). He has contributed to the poetry collections Rewilding: Poems for the Environment (Flexible Press, 2020), Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice (Michigan State University Press, 2019), and The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal (Storey Press, 2023). His essay on the 1965 Worlds Fair is included in the anthology Planet Work (Rutgers University Press).  Armstrong is a recipient of the PEN-New England Discovery Prize, an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship and a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in poetry. He taught English at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, for 24 years, and he was the city’s first Poet Laureate.as Winona’s first Poet Laureate.