Pratt Institute

Education

B.A., George Washington University;
Ph.D., Yale University

Biography

Coordinator, The Writing Program

Full Professor

During the 1980s and 1990s, Ziolkowski published poetry in journals such as Sulfur, Mandorla, O-blek, Lingo, and Talisman. His work was included in An Anthology of (American) Poets (Talisman Books, 1998) and Writing from the New Coast (O-blek Editions, 1993). His chapbooks include Dream Works (Bill Maynes Books, 1996) and Terminal B (Fractional Currency, 1990). His book-length collection of poems, Our Son, the Arson (What Books) was published in 1996. Ziolkowski was also, for most of the 1990s, a staff reviewer for Artforum Magazine. His book reviews, film reviews, cultural criticism, and travel writing have appeared in Slate, Bookforum, Index, Travel & Leisure, and The Village Voice. With the publication, in 2002, of the memoir On a Wave (Grove/Atlantic), Ziolkowski turned to narrative prose. An account of his surfer boyhood in Melbourne Beach, Florida, On a Wave was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award in 2003. Ziolkowski's novel, Wichita, has been selected by Alice Sebold and Tonga Books, a new imprint of Europa Editions. Forthcoming in 2012, Wichita will be issued in Italian, UK and US editions. Ziolkowski received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008-2009, which, with additional support from Pratt, supported his work on this novel.