Torrin A. Greathouse

Torrin A. Greathouse
Color photo of Torrin A. Greathouse in medium close-up
Greathouse in 2021
EducationMFA, University of Minnesota
OccupationsPoet, essayist, educator
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
Notable worksWound from the Mouth of a Wound (2020); DEED (2024)
Notable awardsKate Tufts Discovery Award (2022)
Stonewall Book Award—Barbara Gittings Poetry Award (2025)

Torrin A. Greathouse (stylized in all lowercase) is an American transgender poet and essayist who uses she/they pronouns.[1] Their first poetry collection, Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, won the 2022 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and their second collection, DEED, won the 2025 Stonewall Book Award—Barbara Gittings Poetry Award.[2][3]

Education and career

Greathouse is from Central California.[1] They received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota.[1][4] While at Minnesota, Greathouse's manuscript for Wound from the Mouth of a Wound was selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil for the 2020 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, which included publication by Milkweed Editions.[5][6]

Greathouse teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.[4][7] Their work has appeared in publications including Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, The Kenyon Review, Foglifter, and the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day series.[1][7]

Writing

Reviewers and interviewers have discussed Greathouse's poetry in relation to transness, disability, myth, etymology, desire, violence, and poetic form.[8][9][10][11] In a 2021 interview with Blackbird, Greathouse discussed ekphrasis, etymology, and poetry's ability to examine language that has been used as a weapon.[12] In a 2024 interview with The Rumpus, they discussed the relationship between mythology, religious language, and the body in DEED.[13] Greathouse also told Poets & Writers that the book developed in part from an interest in etymology and inherited language.[14]

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound

Greathouse's first full-length collection, Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, was published by Milkweed Editions in 2020.[15] The manuscript was selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil for the 2020 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, and the book later won the 2022 Kate Tufts Discovery Award.[5][2] It was also a finalist for the 2021 Minnesota Book Awards and the CLMP Firecracker Award.[16][15]

In a December 2020 interview on NPR's Morning Edition, Greathouse discussed the collection in relation to transness, disability, medicalization, and the pressure placed on trans women to be beautiful. In the interview, they said that "beauty is a double bind".[8]

Reviews also emphasized the book's attention to the body.[17] Publishers Weekly described the collection as a debut concerned with gender, the body, and everyday violence.[18] In Harvard Review, rl goldberg wrote that "Something gushes from each page", reading the book through recurring images of fluid, containment, and exposure.[9] Other reviewers noted Greathouse's use of myth and formal variation, including poems involving Medusa, blackout poetry, divided text, mirror reading, and haibun.[19][20]

DEED

Greathouse's second collection, DEED, was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2024.[21] The book won the 2025 Stonewall Book Award—Barbara Gittings Poetry Award from the American Library Association.[3]

Reviews of DEED focused on etymology, desire, disability, and the instability of language.[22][23][11] Publishers Weekly described the book as an "unflinching exploration of the cost of desire" and noted its three-part structure, including the long central poem "I Want to Write an Honest Poem about Desire".[22] Library Journal described the collection as centered on desire, sex, seizures, and etymology, and called Greathouse's attention to word origins one of the book's main tools.[23] In Jacket2, Marcus Zhang discussed the book's use of dictionary entries, sonnets, sestinas, burning haibuns, and medical documents.[10] Reviews in NewPages and Psaltery & Lyre considered the collection's treatment of queer desire and inherited systems of meaning.[24][25]

Bibliography

Poetry collections

  • Wound from the Mouth of a Wound (Milkweed Editions, 2020)[15]
  • DEED (Wesleyan University Press, 2024)[21]

Chapbooks

  • Therǝ is a Case That I Ɐm (Damaged Goods Press, 2017)[1]
  • boy/girl/ghost (TAR Chapbook Series, 2018)[1][7]

Awards

Selected awards and honors
Year Award or honor Work Result
2020 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry Wound from the Mouth of a Wound Won[5]
2021 Minnesota Book Awards, poetry Wound from the Mouth of a Wound Finalist[16]
2021 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, poetry — Fellow[26]
2022 Kate Tufts Discovery Award Wound from the Mouth of a Wound Won[2]
2022 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship — Finalist[1]
2025 Stonewall Book Award—Barbara Gittings Poetry Award DEED Won[3]
2025 Writing Freedom Fellowship — Fellow[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "torrin a. greathouse". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 "Divya Victor's 'Curb' Named 2022 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Winner". Claremont Graduate University. March 4, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 "Stonewall Book Awards List". American Library Association. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  4. 1 2 "torrin a. greathouse". Pacific Lutheran University. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 "torrin a. greathouse wins 2020 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry". Milkweed Editions. April 20, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  6. ↑ "MFA Student Spotlight: torrin a. greathouse". University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts. April 28, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "About torrin a. greathouse". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  8. 1 2 Verma, Jeevika (December 28, 2020). "Poetry Escapes The Beauty Bind In 'Wound From The Mouth Of A Wound'". NPR. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  9. 1 2 goldberg, rl (June 30, 2021). "Wound from the Mouth of a Wound". Harvard Review. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  10. 1 2 Zhang, Marcus. ""A wound lives in whatever isn't spoken"". Jacket2. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  11. 1 2 Mammone, Liv (September 2024). "DEED". Wordgathering. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  12. ↑ "A Correspondence with torrin a. greathouse". Blackbird. October 11, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  13. ↑ Coey, Caitlin (November 13, 2024). "Mythology, Etymology, and the Hard Work of Living: A Conversation with torrin a. greathouse". The Rumpus. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Ten Questions for torrin a. greathouse". Poets & Writers. August 20, 2024. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  15. 1 2 3 "Wound from the Mouth of a Wound". Milkweed Editions. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  16. 1 2 "36 Finalists Blog: torrin a. greathouse". The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. April 15, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  17. ↑ Pomerleau, Clark A. (December 2021). "Wound from the Mouth of a Wound". Wordgathering. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  18. ↑ "Wound from the Mouth of a Wound". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  19. ↑ Thurman, Brandon (June 9, 2021). "Review: Wound from the Mouth of a Wound". Newfound. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  20. ↑ Schumacher, Miki (December 22, 2020). "Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a. greathouse". F(r)iction. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  21. 1 2 "DEED". Wesleyan University Press. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  22. 1 2 "Deed". Publishers Weekly. September 13, 2024. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  23. 1 2 Hoffert, Barbara (July 26, 2024). "DEED". Library Journal. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  24. ↑ Macarty, Jami (August 10, 2025). "Book Review: DEED by torrin a. greathouse". NewPages. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  25. ↑ "To Labor into Being: Review of torrin a. greathouse's DEED and Aaron Caycedo-Kimura's Nonbinary Bird of Paradise". Psaltery & Lyre. April 11, 2025. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  26. ↑ "torrin a. greathouse". National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
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