Alumnus Caiden Feldmiller Publishes Book of Poetry Written As Edinboro Student
Caiden Feldmiller, a spring 2013 summa cum laude graduate of Edinboro University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Writing, is celebrating the release of his first chapbook of poems, titled “Pig, Smoking.”
The manuscript, which Feldmiller completed at EU while enrolled in Thesis Seminar in Writing with Professor John Repp, was chosen by Saddle Road Press as the first book in its Forty-Three North Series.
“This has been an incredibly exciting time,” Feldmiller said. “I received word from Saddle Road Press that more copies of ‘Pig, Smoking’ have sold than of any other Saddle Road publication to date.”
Feldmiller was the recipient of several scholastic awards from EU during his time as a student, including the four-year Academy Scholarship, two APSCUF scholarships (2011-12 and 2012-13), the Dr. Jeremy D. Brown Millennium Leader Scholarship, the Frank G. and Dorothy D. Pogue Scholarship, the Kantz Family Scholarship, the Marquette Savings Bank Scholarship and the Coen Family Foundation Scholarship.
While he was a student, Feldmiller’s poem “Sunday Morning Father” was published in Chimera, the student-run art and literature journal of Edinboro University, and recognized with its Samuel Hazo Award in 2011.
Feldmiller was effusive in his praise of Edinboro’s English faculty and their contribution to his success as a writer. “I enrolled in five of [Repp’s] courses while at Edinboro, and I owe so much of ‘Pig, Smoking’ and its success to his erudition, experience and work. He’s a fine poet – one of the finest and certainly the most humble – and I am eager to get my hands on a copy of his ‘Fat Jersey Blues,’ which was recently chosen by David Kirby as the winner of the 2013 Akron Poetry Prize,” he continued. “Drs. Robert B. Hass and Roger Solberg are other exceptional writing professors who taught me a great deal. Drs. Mary Carden, Elisabeth Joyce and Donald Sheehy most encouraged my love of reading poetry.”
A Cranesville, Pa., native, Feldmiller lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Julia Warren. He studied with poet Frank X. Gaspar at the 2011 Chautauqua Writers’ Festival and, in 2012, received a summer fellowship to study in Oxford, England, from EU’s Dr. Robert C. Weber Honors Program. He now teaches ESL courses for the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council as a Compass AmeriCorps member.
“Pig, Smoking” is available for purchase online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble and in select bookstores.
Check out his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pigsmoking
