About

Tara Skurtu is the author of the chapbook Skurtu, Romania, the full poetry collection The Amoeba Game, and the forthcoming collection Faith Farm. A two-time Fulbright grantee and recipient of a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship, the Marcia Keach Poetry Prize, and two Academy of American Poets prizes, her poems and translations have appeared in magazines such as AGNI, The Baffler, The Common, The Kenyon Review, and Salmagundi. Tara is based in Brooklyn, where she teaches poetry and is a writing coach for clients worldwide.

Featured Work

The Amoeba Game

2017
"The Amoeba Game" front cove: Title in large black letters over a collage of tiny cut-out arms, in various positions, from old photographs on a white background.

On a journey that begins in South Florida and ends up in Romania, the country of her family's forgotten history, Tara Skurtu plays 'the amoeba game,' a game that has no rules. With subtle and serious humor, with the vivid spontaneity of memory and dreams, and with surgical precision, these compelling, mysterious poems hold up a lens that reveals the slippery and changing dimensions of our many selves.

Other Works

Awards and Recognition

  • 2016-2017 U.S. Fulbright Fellowship in Romania
  • 2015-2016 U.S. Fulbright Fellowship in Romania
  • 2013 Academy of American Poets Prize
  • 2012 Academy of American Poets Prize
  • 2010 Marcia Keach Poetry Prize