Robert Cooperman
2 books in the catalogue, published 1999 to 2001.
Robert Cooperman is a Denver poet who writes narrative verse about the Colorado frontier and other historical worlds. Western Reflections Publishing issued two of his books: In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains in 1999 and Widow's Burden in 2001. The first won the Colorado Book Award for Poetry.
About Robert Cooperman
According to the Colorado Poets Center, Cooperman grew up in Brooklyn, earned his B.A. at Brooklyn College, and moved to Denver in 1974 to study in the joint Literature and Creative Writing program. He earned a Ph.D. in Creative Writing with a specialty in nineteenth century British literature, and has taught English at the University of Georgia and Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
His publisher, Kelsay Books, credits him with over twenty poetry collections, including Bearing the Body of Hector Home, a retelling of the end of the Iliad. It says Draft Board Blues was named one of Ten Great Books by a Colorado Author for 2017 by Westword, that In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains won the 2000 Colorado Book Award for Poetry, and that The Widow's Burden was runner-up for the WILLA Award from Women Writing the West in 2001. He lives in Denver with his wife Beth.
Books
In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains
Three books of free verse in one, spoken by the people of Colorado's early mining camps. It won the 2000 Colorado Book Award for Poetry and was published by Western Reflections in 1999.
Widow's Burden
A 2001 narrative poem, described as a tale ripped from the headlines yet timeless. Cooperman's publisher biography says it was runner-up for the WILLA Award in 2001.
What the books share
In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains, the people of the early mining camps speak for themselves in free verse, in a book made of three smaller ones. Widow's Burden carries the same narrative habit into a single story told as a poem, which its description compares to Homer and Milton. Both books sit in the frontier West, and both lean on storytelling more than lyric abstraction. The Colorado Encyclopedia names the first as a leading example of Colorado's historic-narrative poetry.
The subjects this author is catalogued under. Open Library record.
Next steps for readers of this author
Choosing a first Cooperman book
If you want miners, camps and badmen, start with the Gold Fever Mountains volume. For a single long story told as a poem, try Widow's Burden. Each book's own library page has its description.
Planning a poetry reading group
A group could read a section aloud each month and look up the real camp or event behind it using the Colorado Encyclopedia pages, which keeps the talk grounded.
Go deeper
Robert Cooperman writes narrative poetry about Colorado's past. These pages cover the state's poetry, its boom towns and a major special collection, in case you want to read around his subjects.
Colorado Poetry, Colorado Encyclopedia
An essay on Colorado poets and poetry, which discusses how the state's history became a theme of Western verse.
Cripple Creek, Colorado Encyclopedia
A history of a gold boom town, with photographs and an account of the fires that struck it in April.
Denver Public Library Special Collections and Archives
Gives access to images, research guides and Colorado history, with a genealogy section for readers tracing families.
Good to know
How many Robert Cooperman books does Western Reflections publish?
Has Cooperman won awards?
Where does he live and teach?
Writers like this one are how the list was built
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