Karen Volkman's first book, Crash's Law (Norton, 1996), was selected for the National Poetry Series. Her new book, Spar, won the Iowa Poetry Prize and the 2002 James Laughlin Award. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The New Republic, New American Writing, and Fence. Recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Society of America, and the Akademie Schloss Solitude, she is currently the Springer Poet-in-Residence at the University of Chicago.