Bruce Pratt

Lecturer III
5752 Neville Hall, Room 203
Orono, Maine 04469-5752
U.S.A.

Office Telephone: 207.581.3802

E-mail: bruce.pratt@maine.edu

Pratt’s Website

Office Hours – by appointment

Bruce Pratt is an award-winning author—novelist, short story writer, poet, and playwright. He is the author of the novel The Serpents of Blissfull from Mountain State Press, the poetry collection Boreal from Antrim House Books, The Trash Detail: Stories from New Rivers Press, and the poetry chapbook Forms and Shades from Clare Songbirds Publishing. His fiction, poetry, drama, and essays have appeared in more than fifty magazines, reviews, and journals across the United States, and in Canada, Ireland, and Wales. He is the editor of American Fiction.

His short play Electrolysis was performed at the 2008 Maine Short Play Festival, and was included in the 2nd Annual Northern Writes Festival. Another short play Polygamy appeared in Literal Latte in 2009. Barter a one-act play was included in the 2010 Maine Play Festival and The Northern Writes Festival, where it won an audience choice award. His play Wednesday will be featured in the 2010 0-60 Longwood Play Festival in Virginia, and Beaching, a ten-minute play was part of the 2011 Northern Writes Festival and won the audience choice award.

Born 1951 Bronxville NY. Pratt grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Vermont Academy in 1969, Franklin and Marshall College with a BA in Religious Studies in 1973, The University of Maine with a Masters Degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing in 2001, and The University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA with a degree in creative writing with a focus on short fiction, and a concentration in Critical Theory in 2004. He and his wife, Janet, live in Swanville, Maine.

Education

M.F.A., University of Southern Maine (2004)
M.A., University of Maine (2001)

Research Interests:

“My main interest is my own writing and teaching creative writing. My areas of study have and continue to include Religion and Philosophy, Irish Literature, Hockey Literature, and Canadian Literature.”

Courses Taught:

ENG 101: College Composition

ENG 205: Introduction to Creative Writing

ENG 229: Topics in Literature – Irish Literature

English 249: Hockey Literature and Film

ENG 307: Writing Fiction

Publications

  • A Democratic Marriage (Staccato Literary Magazine, 2005)
  • A Division of Labor (Portland Magazine, 2004)
  • A Porcupine In Vermont (Staccato Literary Magazine, 2010)
  • A Wittol’s Wager (Crosscut, 2005)
  • After The Service (Northern New England Review, 2011)
  • Ariel in Love Summer 1999 (Valpariso Fiction Review, 2019)
  • Baby Pictures (The Dalhousie Review, 2009)
  • Blue Silk (Blue Earth Review, 2006)
  • Bone Moon (Briar Cliff Review, 2006)
  • Cinco De Mayo Snow (The Gihon River Review, 2005)
  • City Water (Georgetown Review, 2007)
  • Dates and Avocados (Staccato Literary Magazine, 2005)
  • Dawning of the Day (Hawk and Handsaw, 2008)
  • Elsie (Crosscut, 2003)
  • Gardening (Dalhousie Review, 2006)
  • Getting Something Back (WordSmitten Quarterly Journal, 2004)
  • Grapefruit (Watchword, 2005)
  • Haley (Words and Images, 2003)
  • In Sickness and in Health (Mindprints, 2007; Finalist Annual Prize)
  • Land of the Brave (Puckerbrush Review, 2004)
  • Last Run (Portland Magazine, 2010)
  • Little Michael’s Bar (Crosscut, 2006)
  • Lunacy (Potomac Review, 2008)
  • Lydia (Dogwood, 2003)
  • Maestro Silvestri’s Cello (Cooweescoowee, 2008)
  • Marble (Solstice, 2014)
  • May Alison (Puckerbrush Review, 2012)
  • Mebrelo (Stolen Island Review, 2002)
  • Mildred (Vermont Literary Review, 2008)
  • Missing Person (Platte Valley Review, 2010)
  • Naming (Staccato Literary Magazine, 2010)
  • Over The Yardarm [Weekends] (Crosscut, 2004)
  • Registration (Apocalypse, 2007)
  • Restraint (Trust and Treachery Anthology, 2013)
  • Salvage Harbour Redemption (Words and Images, 2007; Dubus Award Winner)
  • Saturday Night Lights (Portland Magazine, 2013)
  • Split Ticket (Roanoke Review, 2007)
  • Test Results (Apocalypse, 2008)
  • The Colonel’s Mistress Diner (2007, Nominated For Pushcart)
  • The Mailing List (Wisconsin Review, 2010)
  • The Names of the Dead (The Dos Passos Review, 2006)
  • The Trash Detail (The Greensboro Review, 2005)
  • The Trash Detail (Reprinted In BFAR, 2006)
  • The Woman Who Came To Buy My House (The Binnacle, 2008)
  • Whiskey and Roses (Existere, 2009)
  • Eastern Bluebird (Portland Magazine, 2018)
  • Last Rites (Portland Magazine, 2019)
  • Om Land Security (Clackamas Review, 2021)
  • Breaking and Entering (Red Penguin Press anthology, 2021)
  • Breezy (Portland Magazine, 2021)
  • Vanity Plate (Aethlon, 2022)