Randi Ward is a poet, translator, lyricist, and photographer from Belleville, West Virginia. She earned her MA in Cultural Studies from the University of the Faroe Islands and has twice won the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Nadia Christensen Prize.
Ward’s translations, writing, and photography are used in high school and university classrooms throughout the United States and abroad. She is a recipient of Shepherd University’s Appalachian Anthology Photography Award, and Cornell University Library established the Randi Ward Collection in its Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in 2015.
After returning to West Virginia, Ward founded the Parkersburg Poetry Series to bring some of Appalachia’s best writers to Wood County, WV for free readings. She has also served as a judge for West Virginia’s Poetry Out Loud state finals and as a Fine Arts and Spoken Word juror for the Women of Appalachia Project. Her work has been featured on Folk Radio UK, National Public Radio, and PBS NewsHour.
PUBLICATIONS
“Bucket” poem
AAW (#15, 2023)
“Bale” poem
AAW (#15, 2023)
“Shoebox” poem
Pine Mountain Sand &
Gravel (2023)
“Cold Snap III” photo
Gargoyle (#5, 2023)
EXPERIENCE
Guest Judge for the West
Virginia Poetry Out Loud
State Finals (2024)
Guest Editor for Norsk Forfatternes Klimaaksjon (2021)
Spoken Word Juror for the Women of Appalachia Project (2019)
Fine Art Juror for the Women of Appalachia Project (2018)
RECOGNITION
Translation Grant from the
Faroese Lit Agency FARLIT (2023)
Winner of Nadia Christensen Prize
for translating a collection of poems
by Kim Simonsen (2021)
Appalachian Photography Award
Shepherd University (2019)
Randi Ward Collection established
At Cornell University Library (2015)
PRESS
Translation Work Featured in Scandinavian Review (2023)
Poems From The Edge of Extinction
in World Literature Today (2020)
Poetry Featured on the Norsk Forfatternes Klimaaksjon Website (August 2020)
Poem Included in WV Humanities Council Poetry Series (2020)
If William Wordsworth had been a photographer, Randi Ward would be his equal in talent and polar opposite in perspective. Her work suggests that if redemption in this world is possible, it can be found only in small, discreet moments.
—Mark Brazaitis, author of The Incurables
A photo essay about the village of Hestur in the Faroe Islands includes descriptive captions and an introduction by Randi Ward, which illuminates her literary as well as artistic talents. Her work communicates a moving depth of relationship with the people and landscapes there.
—Sarah Gorman, NewPages
Not only is Randi a gifted writer, she’s a fine poet and talented photographer. The photos in Meditations on Salt are excellent. They create the sense that everyone has run away. It’s as though no one wants to be around. Everyone has bolted for some reason.
—Oddfríður M. Rasmussen, author
It has been fascinating to experience the stories of Olevina, as well as other people in Nólsoy, via the artistic temperament of Randi Ward—and now Guðrið Hansdóttir. This is a definite strength of Beyond the Grey.
—Uni L. Hansen, Faroese music critic
The entire collection is unified: the texts, the photos, and how they are presented. The poet clearly has intentions throughout. Meditations on Salt is built on this fundamental tone that is solitude and the means of a solitary being—which, in some way, ends up being solitude.
—Carl Jóhan Jensen, author and critic
It was through Beyond the Grey that I was first introduced to Randi Ward, a poet from West Virginia. She wrote all of the lyrics for the album and captured the beauty of the Faroe Islands in an unforgettable way.
—Alex Gallacher, Folk Radio UK