April Ossmann

Who is April Ossmann?

April Ossmann is an American poet, teacher, and editor. She is author of Anxious Music, and has had her poems published in many literary journals including Harvard Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Puerto del Sol, Seneca Review, Passages North, Mid-American Review, and Colorado Review, and in anthologies including From the Fishouse, and Contemporary Poetry of New England. Her awards include a 2000 Prairie Schooner Reader’s Choice Award. Publishers Weekly, in reviewing Anxious Music, wrote that Ossmann’s voice is "remarkable for its confidence and fierceness."

Ossmann was executive director of Alice James Books from 2000–2008, presiding over a period of growth that, according to Poets & Writers, saw the press budget more than double in size, and saw the publication of the best-selling Here, Bullet, by Brian Turner, which garnered major media attention. According to Publishers Weekly, which interviewed Ossmann on the occasion of Alice James Books’ thirtieth anniversary, "the press received a three-year, $250,000 stabilization grant from an anonymous donor...With the grant, the press added two full-time staffers, upgraded its equipment, and launched a website with secure online ordering. The press also signed with a trade distributor for the first time, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution." According to Valley News reporter Kristen Fountain, “It was an all-consuming, life-changing position, during which she stabilized the company's financial structure, increased its output and helped push its books into the national press.”