Belieu was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, graduating from Central High School. She attended Boston University, and Ohio State University receiving advanced degrees in the area of poetry.
Career
Belieu previously taught at Washington University, Boston University, Kenyon College, and Ohio University. She now teaches in the highly ranked MFA/Ph.D. Creative Writing Program at Florida State University.
Her work has appeared in places such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Slate, Nerve, The Yale Review, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, The New York Times, Tin House, and The Virginia Quarterly Review. Her poetry collections include Infanta, One Above & One Below, Black Box and Slant Six. She has served as managing editor of AGNI.
In September 2006, Belieu was invited to join the Wave Press Poetry Bus Tour, along with notable poets such as Matthew Zapruder, Joshua Beckman, Eileen Myles and Arthur Sze.
In August 2009, Belieu cofounded the national feminist organization VIDA: Women In Literary Arts, notable for its influential annual survey of the rates of publication between male and female authors. This VIDA survey, known as The Count, has been highly influential in addressing sweeping gender bias in contemporary American literary publishing. Belieu formerly served as VIDA’s co director, along with notable American poet Cate Marvin.
In August 2015, Belieu was one of 20 authors of Poets for Corbyn, an anthology of poems endorsing Jeremy Corbyn’s the campaign in Labour Party leadership election.
Awards and honors
- 1994 National Poetry Series, for Infanta, selected by Hayden Carruth
- chosen for the Rona Jaffe Fellowship
- Ohioana Award
- Society of Midland Authors Award
- invited to read at the Library of Congress by former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky
- 2007 finalist for the Los Angeles Times book award in poetry for Black Box
Collections
- Infanta. Copper Canyon Press. 1995.
- One Above and One Below. Copper Canyon Press. 2000.
- Black Box. Copper Canyon Press. 2006.
- Slant Six. Copper Canyon Press. 2014.