Jason Labbe

Born in New Britain, Connecticut and raised by a machinist and a waitress, Jason Labbe earned his MFA from the University of Virginia, where he was a Henry Hoyns Fellow. He is the author of a full-length collection Spleen Elegy (2017) and a handful of chapbooks, including Blackwash Canal (2011) and Dear Photographer (2009). His poems and prose appear widely in such publications as Poetry magazine, Boston Review, A Public Space, Conjunctions, Colorado Review, and DIAGRAM.  Ranging from dense abstractionist meditations to austere minimalist lyrics, Labbe’s work explores themes of trauma, recovery, and the intersection (or collision) of the analog realm with digital technology, as reflected in the postmodern American landscape. Dan Beachy-Quick says of Spleen Elegy, “Jason Labbe well knows, as Whitman’s atoms become pixels, we find ourselves at a crossroads, learning again and again the consequences of ‘the indescribable way you shape / a past of little use.’” Labbe has taught writing at the University of Virginia, the University of Connecticut, and Southern Connecticut State University. Also a drummer and recording engineer, he has worked with many artists in New England and New York City. He splits his time between Bethany, Connecticut and Brooklyn, New York.