Background
Born in Idaho, Raptosh grew up in Nampa, Idaho and attended Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho.
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Diane Raptosh
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She attended The College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho and then received a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Michigan.
Career
After graduating from Michigan, Raptosh taught in Chicago, Seattle, and Laramie, Wyoming. In 1990, she was hired to teach at the College of Idaho. Raptosh is the recipient of three fellowships in literature from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and holds the Eyck-Berringer Endowed Chair in English at The College of Idaho.
She teaches literature and creative writing, and directs the criminal justice/prison studies program
Raptosh is to serve as the Idaho Writer-in-Residence from 2013 through 2016. In 2013, the city of Boisie named Raptosh as its first poet laureate in recognition of its flourishing literary community.
She has published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Women's Studies Quarterly, Terrain.org, Michigan Quarterly Review and OccuPoetry. A book-length dramatic monologue, American Amnesiac investigates the complexities of being American in an age of corruption, corporations, and global conflict.
Talking about the role of a poet in a society, Raptosh reflected poet as a bodyguard of the language.
"The poet sees/says things others think they don’t need to" She told in an interview with Alok Mishra. Raptosh conducts writing workshops, gives readings, and lectures on poetry in university auditoriums, maximum security prisons, school buses, and riverbanks. Raptosh frequently takes her students on field trips to a local jail and prison.
Raptosh lives in Boise, Idaho, with her family.
Honors and American Amnesiac. Etruscan Press. 2013.
Parents From a Different Alphabet. 2008. Guernica Editions.
Labor Songs. 1999. Guernica Editions.
Just West of Now. 1992. Guernica Editions.
Achievements
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2013 American Amnesiac is long listed for the National Book Award. 2013–2016 Named Idaho Writer-in-Residence 2013 Named Boise Poet Laureate 2007 Fellowship in Literature, Idaho Commission on the Arts 2001 Fellowship in Literature, Idaho Commission on the Arts 1991 Fellowship in Literature, Idaho Commission on the Arts.
Politics
Families: The Frontline of Pluralism ().
