Laurie J MacDiarmid is an Associate Professor of English and Writer in Residence at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. She is also the author of Float, a chapbook of poems devoted to motherhood. Her poems have appeared in a wide variety of literary journals, including Antioch Review, Pennsylvania Quarterly, Mochila Review and Carolina Quarterly.

Books by Laurie J MacDiarmid:

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About Consolation Prize:

"In Consolation Prize, Laurie J MacDiarmid, with compassion and grace, presents a frightening extended family. The series of poems chronicles a young speaker who copes with death, illness, disruption, relocation, and alcoholism. The dangers of domestic life are rendered with tenderness and precision. Consolation Prize builds in momentum, each poem well plotted, emotionally adept, energetic, and full of music."
—Denise Duhamel

"Consolation Prize idles high and accelerates quickly. Laurie J MacDiarmid writes tight, sharp poems fueled by mercy and grudge and survival. Everything is hard-earned, with no clear resolutions, no easy heroes or villains. In the hands of a lesser writer, these family dramas could have been distorted or exploited, but MacDiarmid gives us the clear, frank, emotional truths—never sentimental, never hysterical. Like the best poets, she knows when to hold back and when to let go."
—Jim Daniels