Shelley Savren’s first book, The Common Fire, was published by Red Hen Press. Her poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, Solo, Rattle, Main Street Rag, Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices and Serving House Journal. She received nine California Arts Council grants, three National Endowment for the Arts regional grants, five artist fellowships from the City of Ventura and a Pushcart nomination. She was a finalist in contests from Cleveland State University Poetry Center and University of Arkansas Press Poetry Series and has taught poetry-writing workshops for homeless, abused, neglected and emotionally-disturbed youths, developmentally-disabled adults, at a maximum security men’s prison, juvenile halls, and every grade through California Poets in the Schools. She holds an M.F.A. from Antioch University L.A. and is an English and creative writing professor at Oxnard College.
“In The Wild Shine of Oranges, Shelley Savren finds the neglected, incarcerated and sick, and explores the perils of family, and a daughter coming into her own. These frank, tightly-crafted narratives recount the sounds of protest and are testament to lives lost and shared, where, in moments of mercy, “there are no shadows.””
—Dorianne Laux
“These poems describe historical change and global issues in personal narrative and familial experience in a way that makes history easy to understand. Foods, concentration camps, culture, love and loss abound in these poems and are treated with an affection and kindness seldom achieved in poetry.”
—Jimmy Santiago Baca
