Bonnie Larson Staiger, a North Dakota Associate Poet Laureate, is the recipient of the ‘Poetry of the Plains and Prairies Prize’ (NDSU Press, 2018) and the ‘Independent Press Award: Distinguished Favorite’ (2019) for her debut collection, Destiny Manifested. Her second book In Plains Sight (NDSU Press 2021) was nominated for the PEN America Literary Award, received a Silver Medal in the Midwest Book Awards (2022), and Women Writing the West: WILLA Literary Award in Poetry, Finalist (2022). She has received the Poetry of Courage Award (NC Poetry Society), and awards from Flying South Literary Magazine, The MacGuffin’s Best of the Year Anthology, was a finalist for the Julia Darling Poetry Prize and shortlisted for the Great Midwest Poetry Prize.
Some notable poets she has studied with: Ilya Kaminsky, Rick Barot, Richard Blanco, Kevin Pilkington, Ross Gay, Tom Sleigh, and Kathleen Norris.
Often serenaded by a pair of Great Horned Owls nearby, she thrives on the Great Plains not far from the Badlands of North Dakota. There she frequently writes of the poignant subtleties of life on the high plains of the New American West as well as a view of the world shaped by that place.
Bonnie Larson Staiger 