Judith Vollmer

Judith Vollmer was born and raised in Pittsburgh. She is the author of the poetry collections The Pavese Stone (Alice James Books, 2026); The Sound Boat: New and Selected Poems (University of Wisconsin Press, 2022), winner of the Four Lakes Poetry Prize; The Apollonia Poems (University of Wisconsin Press, 2017); The Water Books (Autumn House Press 2012); Reactor (University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize; The Door Open to the Fire (Cleveland State University Press, 1997); and Level Green (University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). 

Vollmer’s other awards include the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, as well as honors from Cleveland State University Poetry Center and the Center for Book Arts. She is recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She has received artist residences from Yaddo, the American Academy in Rome, Blue Mountain Center, and Centrum.  

For three decades, Vollmer coedited the international poetry journal 5 AM. She is professor emerita at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, where she was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Vollmer has taught in low-residency MFA programs at New England College, in Drew University’s MFA program in poetry and poetry in translation, and most recently, at Carlow University. She lives in Pittsburgh’s Nine Mile Run watershed.