William Stobb (born 1970) is an American poet and author of essays and short fiction. He is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, and an editor at Conduit magazine and Conduit Books and Ephemera.
Stobb's first poetry collection was a chapbook, For Better Night Vision, published by the Black Rock Press at the University of Nevada. His first full-length book, Nervous Systems, was selected by August Kleinzahler for the National Poetry Series, and published by Penguin Books in 2007. Absentia (Penguin) and Artifact Eleven: Desert Fragments (Black Rock Press) appeared in 2011. In 2018, Stobb's poetry collection You Are Still Alive won the 42 Miles Press poetry prize, and was published in 2019.
Stobb's work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Conduit, Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Kenyon Review, Lit Hub, and Mississippi Review, among other publications. In 2025, his work appeared in the critical anthology Afterlives of the New York School of Poets: An Anthology (Routledge), edited by Angela Ball. Stobb has received poetry awards and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Nevada Arts Council, as well as the Editors' Prize from Spoon River Poetry Review for his poem "A Moment for Authentic Shine." Stobb's short story, "All the Bodies," won the 2019 Zona Gale Award from the Council of Wisconsin Writers for best short story by a Wisconsin author. In 2025, Stobb's critical essay on Michael Heizer's earthwork City appeared in North American Review. Stobb creates audio art that can be heard on SoundCloud. His early podcast, "Hard to Say," was presented by miPOradio from 2004–2010. Stobb has presented at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference.
Stobb was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, and studied at the University of North Dakota and the University of Nevada.
Awards 1994 Academy of American Poets' Thomas McGrath Award 2000 Nevada Arts Council Poetry Fellowship 2006 National Poetry Series 2012 Spoon River Poetry Review Editors' Prize. 2014 Science Fiction Poetry Association Long Form Prize 2016 Science Fiction Poetry Association Long Form Prize 2019 Council for Wisconsin Writers Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction 2019 42 Miles Press Book Award
Bibliography
Poetry collections
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Poetry chapbooks University of Nevada. University of Nevada.
References
External links "Author's website" Author's Academy of American Poets entry. Conduit magazine (editor) "Hard to Say", miPOradio "Once and Future Kingdoms: Real Histories Meet Sci-fi Apocalypse at Michael Heizer's City", North American Review (essay + audio) "All the Bodies", North Dakota Quarterly (Zona Gale Prize for fiction, 2019) "Poem that Wanted to Be a Brueghel", Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day "And Now Sparky's Wild and Free", American Poetry Review "A Moment for Authentic Shine", Academy of American Poets (Spoon River Poetry Review Editors' Prize) Four poems, DIAGRAM 24.1, 2024 "A Brief Interruption" and "Entropic", Diode Poetry Journal 12.2, 2017. "What Is Happening" and "Earl of Rochester," Kenyon Review 37.4 "Absentia"; "Natural History", The Offending Adam 001.2, 2010 "In a Mountain Pasture "; "Some Purple"; "Release"; "In/and", Jacket 35, 2008 William Stobb | The Poetry Foundation