Ralph Adamo has degrees from Loyola University and The University of Arkansas, where he earned his MFA in creative writing. He has taught English classes at Xavier University since 2007 and was promoted to full professor in 2018. He has published eight books of poetry (with a ninth ready to go), including two in the first group from Lost Roads Publishers. In 2002, his selected poem, Waterblind, was published and he won a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry the following year. In 2014 and again in 2020, he published new books of poems. He has received fellowships at YADDO and The Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, becoming a Katrina Media Fellow for the Open Society Foundation in 2006. Adamo has edited Barataria Review, and The New Orleans Review and currently edits both Xavier Review and Xavier Review Press. He is also the editor of the selected poems of Everette Maddox. Ralph Adamo’s other ‘careers’ include six years as a journalist, two years writing for network television, and stints as the vocalist for a spoken word band. In addition to his time at Xavier, he has taught at Loyola and Tulane Universities, LSU, Dillard, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts Academy, and UNO, where he was faculty advisor to the student newspaper, Driftwood.

Research: A lot of what would be considered research in my case, as a professional writer, involves creating, revising and publishing my own work as a poet. I have also been engaged in recent years assisting James McWilliams, the biographer of poet Frank Stanford, in his work. Much of the rest of my ‘research’ time is spent editing Xavier Review and Xavier Review Press, and trying to keep up with developments in small press and literary magazine publishing.

Office Hours:

M: 1-3, TTR 4-5+ (sometimes held in Xavier South. The best contact for me is xula email, or my cell phone, 504 858 0087)