About Beth Paulson

Beth Paulson has been widely published over the last two decades in national literary journals and online sites. Her poems have been four times nominated for Pushcart Prizes as well as Best of the Net. In 2019 she was named a Finalist for the Able Muse Write Prize. Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies including most recently Going Down Grand: Poems from the Canyon (Lithic Press, 2015) and In Plein Air: Poems and Drawings of the Natural World (Poetic License Press, 2017), and Wet:An Anthology of Water Poems and Prose (Sharehoouse, 2021). Beth’s sixth collection of poems, Luminous, was published in 2021 by Kelsay Books, and she recently co-authored with Don Paulson Images of the Mountain West in Photographs and Poems (Twain Publishers, 2019). Beth taught English at California State University Los Angeles for over 20 years.  She currently lives in Ouray County, Colorado where she co-founded and co-directed the Open Bard Poetry Series, led Poetica, a workshop for area writers for 12 years, and co-directs Poetry at the Tavern at the Wright Opera House in Ouray.  In April 2019 Beth was named the first Poet Laureate of Ouray County.

Beth's previously published books include Immensity (Kelsay Books, 2016), Canyon Notes (Mt. Sneffels Press, 2012), Wild Raspberries (Plainview Press, 2009), The Company of Trees (Ponderosa Press, 2004), The Truth about Thunder (Ponderosa Press, 2001). She has also written a collection of essays, Uniquely Ouray: Reflections of Life in a Mountain County (Ponderosa Press, 2007).

Her poems have been included in Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West (Houghton Mifflin, 2004) and What Wildness is This: Women Write about the Southwest (University of Texas Press, 2007). Two of her poems also appears in IMPROV: An Anthology of Colorado Poets (Green Fuse Press, 2008) and the anthology What's Nature Got To Do With Me? (October 2011) from Native West Press. One of her poems appears in Going Down Grand: Poems from the Canyon" 2015, Lithic Press. Her poems also appear in In Plein Air (Poetic License Press, 2017) and WET: An Anthology of Water Poems (Sharehouse Press, 2021).

Beth has received several prizes for her poems, including a 2011 "Best of the Net" nomination for her poem, "Fragility." Beth was named a semi-finalist for the 2011 Janet McCabe Prize for her poem "And Then I Touched a Match to New-Laid Wood." Her poem, "Hollyhocks," was nominated for the 2007 Pushcart Prize and her poem, "The Color of Snow," was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize. Beth's poem "Moon Directions" was awarded an Honorable Mention Prize by Passager magazine for their Summer 2010 issue. A second poem, "Chance," honored by Passager, appears in their 2013 issue. Her poem "Driving North" was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Her poem Fragility was nominated for Best of the Net in 2011. Beth received third place in the 2012 Mark Fisher Prize contest for her poem, "Failte Eire." She received second prize in the Common Ground Review 2015 contest for her poem "Each Life Converges." She received third prize in the Naugatuck River Review's 2016 Narrative Poetry contest and a Pushcart Prize nomination for 2016 for her poem "Still Life with Oranges." Her poem, "In the Museum," received an Honorable Mention in Common Ground Review in 2018. For her poem "For Land that Moves Back and Forth" she was named a 2019 semi-finalist by Naugatuck River Review. Her poem "Paradox" was named a finalist for the Write Prize by Able Muse Review, 2019.

In 2022 Beth was awarded First Prize for Poetry for her book Luminous by the National Federation of Press Women.

Beth's poems have been published or are forthcoming in: The Climbing Art, Idaho Connections, Clark Street Review, Trestle Creek Review, Herb Network, Buffalo Bones, Mountain Gazette, Hard Row to Hoe, Sunstone, The Kerf, Welcome Home, Writing on the Edge, Tapestries, Mad Blood, Blueline, Shemom, Blind Man's Rainbow, Voicings from the High Country, Advocate, Sweet Annie and Sweet Pea Review, Red Owl, Tributaries, Aethlon, Ruah, Innisfree, The Oak, HeartLodge, Slow Trains, Pegasus, Terrain, Damselfly, The Lyric, Aurorean, Poetry of the Spirit, Still Crazy, Iris Magazine, Plainsongs, Red Rock Review, Poetry Saves, New Mexico Review of Poetry, Passager, Write On, Plain Spoke, Whirlwind Review, Wild Goose Review, Ruminate, Willow Creek Journal, Common Ground Review, Cloudbank, Imagination and Place, Willows Wept, The Eleventh Muse, Colorado Life Magazine, Riversongs, Pinyon, and Naugatuck River Review, Emrys Journal, Earth's Daughters, Dash, Lindenwood Review, Westview, Colorado Life, Ellipsis, The Progenitor, Trajectory, Front Range Review, Crosswinds, Glassworks, Off The Coast, Clover, Illuminations, Third Wednesday, Caesura, Leaping Clear, Main Street Rag, Slant, Bryant Literary Review, Able Muse Literary Magazine, Santa Fe Literary Review, and I-70 Review.