ALTOONA, Pa. — “Swoon: New & Selected Poems,” a new book by Erin Murphy, professor of English at Penn State Altoona and the 2026-27 Penn State Laureate, is featured in two recent review essays.
In the Pittsburgh Review of Books, reviewer Gary Ciocco writes, “To call Erin Murphy’s ‘Swoon: New and Selected Poems’ a ‘tome’ is to begin to properly praise it,” noting that the volume represents “a time-span of only twenty-two years whereby she moves with ease and expertise through ideas and sensations, personae and varied poetic use of narrative, lyrical forms and rhyme.”
“Murphy is not just a great writer, but a great thinker,” Ciocco adds, “using irony, opposition, [and] social tension … to make her points.”
Calling Murphy “one of the most prolific writers and poets working in academia,” reviewer Glynn Young writes in Tweetspeak that “The breadth and depth of the poems, the style and sheer inventiveness, says this is a poet who has mastered poetry.”
Both reviewers also praise Murphy’s demi-sonnets, a seven-line poetic form she invented. Ciocco said, “These short poems brim with wisdom and surprise. Her ability to bring lived experience and observations to the vibrant surface is matched by her talent ‘for yoking together two things that don’t belong as one’ — a line which ends ‘Zeugma.’”
Published by Grayson Books in May, “Swoon: New & Selected Poems” features 300 pages of poems from Murphy’s ten previous collections, along with new work.
Murphy is the author or editor of 16 books. During her year as Penn State Laureate, she will visit campuses throughout the University to present and promote poetry and bring greater visibility to the arts, humanities, and the broader University mission.