Wikipedia

Bianca Stone

Bianca Stone is an American poet and cartoonist. Her poems have appeared in literary magazines and poetry collections, and her illustrations are a part of Anne Carson's project Antigonick. In 2024, she became Poet Laureate of Vermont. She is the granddaughter of former Poet Laureate of Vermont Ruth Stone and is creative director of the Ruth Stone House Foundation.

Bianca Stone
OccupationPoet and cartoonist
Education
Period2012–present
Notable works
  • Antigonick (2012, with Anne Carson)
  • Someone Else's Wedding Vows (2014)
  • What Is Otherwise Infinite (2022)
Notable awardsPoet Laureate of Vermont (2024)
Spouse
Ben Pease
​
(m. 2014)​
RelativesRuth Stone (granddaughter)
Website
bianca-stone.com

Early life and education

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Stone graduated from Antioch College with a BFA in Language, Literature & Culture, where she noted Benjamin S. Grossberg as a key teacher, and she completed an MFA in poetry at New York University in 2009, where she studied under Anne Carson.[1][2][3][4] Stone's grandmother, the poet Ruth Stone, was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships[5][6] and the National Book Award for Poetry in 2002,[7] and she remains a major influence in Stone's life.[4]

Career

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Stone's poems have been published in Best American Poetry 2011, Conduit, and Tin House, among others,[8] and she is the author of the chapbooks I Want To Open The Mouth God Gave You, Beautiful Mutant[9] (Factory Hollow Press, 2012) and I Saw The Devil With His Needlework (Argos Books, 2012). Tin House Books published Stone's book Someone Else's Wedding Vows in March 2014.[10][11] Tin House also published her collection The Möbius Strip Club of Grief in 2018,[12] What Is Otherwise Infinite in 2022,[13] and The Near and Distant World in 2026.[14][15]

She founded and edited a small press for poetry, Monk Books, in 2010 with her husband, the poet Ben Pease, in Brooklyn, New York.[16] She also edited a collection of her grandmother's work, The Essential Ruth Stone, published 2020 by Copper Canyon Press.[17]

Stone is also an illustrator and cartoonist known for creating poetry comics in watercolor and ink.[3][4] Her illustrations have appeared in a collaboration with former teacher Anne Carson entitled Antigonick, based on Sophocles's tragedy Antigone.[18][19][20] This is both a printed book and a multimedia performance piece.[21] I Want To Open The Mouth God Gave You, Beautiful Mutant was a comic book as well as a book of poetry.[4] She adapted Gertrude Stein’s poem “A Little Called Pauline” into a picture book.[15] She created stop motion animations and music for the 2021 movie Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Female Mind and played a central role in the movie.[22][23]

She is now based in Vermont, where she co-founded and serves as creative director for the nonprofit Ruth Stone House Foundation[24][25] and has been a visiting faculty and artist at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.[1][26][27] She taught classes on poetry at Dartmouth College, Bennington College, and University of Massachusetts Amherst.[28] With her husband, she now teaches at the Ruth Stone House as well as producing the Ode & Psyche Podcast and the literary magazine ITERANT.[29]

In 2024, Stone became Poet Laureate of Vermont, succeeding Mary Ruefle.[26][30] In 2025, the Academy of American Poets named her a Poet Laureate Fellow.[28]

Personal life

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Stone married fellow poet Ben Pease in August 2014 at her grandmother Ruth Stone's former house in Vermont, now the registered historic place the Ruth Stone House.[31]

Selected works

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Poetry collections

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  • I Want To Open The Mouth God Gave You, Beautiful Mutant (Factory Hollow Press, 2012)
  • I Saw The Devil With His Needlework (Argos Books, 2012)
  • Someone Else's Wedding Vows (Tin House, 2014)
  • The Möbius Strip Club of Grief (Tin House, 2018)
  • What Is Otherwise Infinite (Tin House, 2022)
  • The Near and Distant World (Tin House, 2026)

Illustrations and animations

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References

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  1. 1 2 "Bianca Stone Visiting Faculty". Vermont College of Fine Arts. Archived from the original on May 29, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Interview with Bianca Stone". TELL TELL POETRY. August 11, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  3. 1 2 Bell, Matt (May 2014). "Those Raw Imperfect Impulses: Bianca Stone with Matt Bell". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Harball, Elizabeth. "Drawing Verse". Poetry Foundation. Interview. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
  5. ↑ O'Gorman, Josh. "Putting Life into Words". The Barre Montpelier Times Argus. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Ruth Stone". Guggenheim Fellowship. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  7. ↑ "2002 Winners". National Book Foundation. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  8. ↑ Ulin, David L. (October 27, 2014). "Brevity is the soul of 'The Honest Pint,' a broadside on poetics". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  9. ↑ "FEATURES: A Bianca Stone interview" By Alex Dueben The Comics Journal. August 24, 2012.
  10. ↑ Shaw, Kent. "Book Reviews: Someone Else's Wedding Vows". Colorado State University Center for Literary Publishing. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Someone Else's Wedding Vows". Publishers Weekly. February 3, 2014. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  12. ↑ Fried, Daisy (July 6, 2018). "Sex, Death, Suffering and Surrealism, in New Books of Poetry". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  13. ↑ Verma, Jeevika (January 18, 2022). "'What Is Otherwise Infinite' asks for granular honesty in our search for meaning". National Public Radio. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Bianca Stone". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  15. 1 2 Frank, Rebecca Morgan (January 2, 2026). "Looking Ahead to the Most Anticipated Poetry of 2026". Literary Hub. Retrieved April 17, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Q&A: Chapbook Publishers: Bianca Stone on Monk Books". Poetry Society of America. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  17. ↑ Rooney, Kathleen (September 28, 2020). "Cry Until You Laugh". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  18. ↑ "Tragic figures & top girls". Bay Area Reporter, Theatre, March 19, 2015, Richard Dodds
  19. ↑ "How Is a Greek Chorus Like a Lawyer". Slate.
  20. ↑ "A martyr gets another chance in 'Antigonick'". Chicago Tribune, (login required)
  21. ↑ "Antigone and the elusive ghosts of justice". J. Kelly Nestrick, The Globe and Mail, Monday, August 11, 2014,
  22. ↑ Lefrak, Mikaela; Smith, Matthew F. (January 14, 2022). "Norwich filmmaker premieres documentary on Vermont poet laureate Ruth Stone". Vermont Public. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
  23. ↑ Weedon, Travis (January 12, 2022). "Visual Poetry at the Savoy". The Bridge. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
  24. ↑ Simonds, Sandra (January 24, 2022). "Descend in Daughters". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  25. ↑ "Who We Are". Ruth Stone House. Retrieved April 5, 2026.
  26. 1 2 "Visiting Artists: Bianca Stone". Vermont College of Fine Arts. July 10, 2023. Retrieved April 5, 2026.
  27. ↑ "Riverviews' 'Rebus' exhibit showcases poetry comics". BURG, March 5, 2014 Brent Wells.
  28. 1 2 "Academy of American Poets Selects Bianca Stone as 2025 Poet Laureate Fellow". Vermont Arts Council. August 5, 2025. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  29. ↑ Kranick, Scout (May 29, 2025). "In Goshen, two generations of poet laureates converge". Vermont Public. Retrieved April 17, 2026.
  30. ↑ O'Connor, Kevin (May 1, 2024). "3rd-generation writer Bianca Stone named Vermont's new poet laureate". VTDigger. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  31. ↑ O'Connor, Maureen (September 1, 2014). "The 5 Kinds of Poems You Hear at Weddings". New York Magazine. Archived from the original on September 5, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
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