Beverly Monestier

Beverly Monestier is an international writer who has been awarded in both poetry and prose. Her latest collection of poetry, What The House Is Made Of, received the 2009 Edwin M. Eakin Memorial Book Publication Award. Her previous collection, Modern Ruins, was published in Cyprus in 2002. Her recent work can be found in Callaloo, Mizna, Southern Humanities Review, Chautauqua Literary Journal, Dogwood, Palo Alto Review, Cadences (European University of Cyprus), Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Rio Grande Review, New Texas, the Texas Poetry Calendar, the national awards anthology Encore, multiple editions of the San Antonio Express-News, and across many other pages and stages. 
     Beverly holds an honors degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and has lived and/or worked in the European capital of Brussels, in Russia soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and for many years in the far Eastern Mediterranean. She has served as a state touring poet for the Texas Commission on the Arts, a state poetry coach and advisor for the national Poetry Out Loud program, and done professional work for the national Poets & Writers organization, the Healing Arts program, USAID and the Cyprus Fulbright Commission, and numerous educational institutions and community organizations. She has twice been featured by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies annual conference (2006, 2008) as both a creativity instructor and a performing poet, and was one of two poets selected to represent the US at 2007 International Poetry Day events in Nicosia. There are plans to publish her professional creativity course and related materials as a book for the general public.
     In 2007, popular San Antonio Woman magazine named her their Role Model for Youth, both for having been a young entrepreneur and for her poetic contribution.   

For more information on Performances, Workshops and Classes, Coaching and other Training, contact beverlymonestier@hotmail.com.

Books by Beverly Monestier

Winner of the 2009 Edwin M. Eakin Memorial Book Publication Award
(Eakin, 2010)

Praise for "What the House is Made of":

This book gleams with wisdom, insight, and, above all, an encompassing compassion for all people. Its imagery and metaphor are astounding in their depth and freshness. The author is a true poet. Her poems move seamlessly from memories to landscapes as rich and varied as Moscow, Calcutta, Beirut, and San Antonio to issues that confront humanity and touch the heart as well as the mind.
What The House Is Made Of is a collection to savor, to read, and to re-read. It is simply beautiful in its language, content, and voice. I wished the world community could live in this house and what it is made of--- we would find ourselves in rooms filled with light.

- Kathryn E. Clement
Judge, 2009 Eakin Award

The quiet yet hauntingly powerful poems of this collection reflect a profound sense of humanity and universality. Monestier holds dual United States and Republic of Cyprus citizenship, and is as effective and assured in conveying the essence, both historical and contemporary, of Cyprus as she is of her native San Antonio. She never flinches when confronting the ravages of war, and offers up, with consummate poetic artistry, love and understanding as the only viable alternatives. We live in a troubled and volatile world, and need the words of this open-minded, courageous, and accomplished poet who “opens her mouth and emits the scent of evening jasmine.”

- Larry D. Thomas
2008 Texas Poet Laureate

For Book Availability Contact beverlymonestier@hotmail.com