Anthony Walton (born 1960) is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

. He is perhaps best known as the author of a

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

of poems, ''Cricket Weather'' and for his non-fiction work ''Mississippi: An American Journey.'' His work has appeared widely in magazines, journals, and

anthologies In book publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed work ...

, including ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, US, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ...

'', ''

Oxford American The ''Oxford American'' is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the American South. First publication The magazine was begun in late 1989 in Oxford, Mississippi, by Marc Smirnoff (born July 11, 1963). The name "Oxford American" is a play on ''T ...

'', and ''Rainbow Darkness''. He is currently a professor and the writer-in-residence at

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin Intern ...

.Anthony E. Walton (Bowdoin)
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Early years and education

Walton who is of African American descent, grew up in

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...

. Both of his parents were born and raised in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and although he has never lived there for an extended period, he regularly visits. His father traveled to Illinois in 1952 at the age of 17. His mother was born in 1936 and traveled to Illinois where she met his father and got married. When he was a child his parents would rent a cabin on Lake

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

near Escanaba, which he has remembered into his adult life. He studied and earned his B.A. at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

and received an M.F.A. from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. While studying at the University of Notre Dame he participated in ROTC, and wrote articles for the school newspaper, the observer, and the school magazine, The Scholastic, which helped start his writing career. During his time at the University of Notre Dame he came across the Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens which had a major impact on him. Upon graduation, Walton moved to New York where he experienced personal torment daily. While in New York he worked for a magazine where he experienced the protest march after the Yusuf Hawkins murder in 1989.

Career

In 1989, Walton wrote an essay for the ''New York Times Magazine,'' "Willie Horton and Me," concerning race issues of the time. Walton won a

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard E ...

in 1998 in nonfiction. He contributed to By J. Peder Zane's 2004 ''Remarkable Reads: 34 Writers and Their Adventures in Reading'' (). Walton also helped co-edit ''The Vintage Book of African American Poetry''.Cite web , url=https://www.edithwharton.org/event/voices-of-poetry/ , title=The Mount Currently he is a writer-in-residence at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine teaching creative writing and American poetry while also researching a variety of topics.

Works

*''Every Shut Eye Aint Asleep: Anthology Of Poetry by African Americans Since 1945'' (Editor) 1994 *''Cricket Weather'' 1995 *''Go and Tell Pharaoh'' with

Reverend Al Sharpton Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...

, 1996 *''Mississippi: An American Journey'' 1997 *''The Vintage Book of African American Poetry'' (Editor) 2002 *''Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes'' with

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem (alternatively spelled Karim or Kerim) ( ar, کریم) is a common given name and surname of Arabic origin that means "generous", "noble", "honorable". It is also one of the Names of God in Islam in the Quran. Given name Karim * Karim A ...

, 2004.

References

External links

Official Website (under construction) Audio of Anthony Walton reading his poemsProfile at The Whiting Foundation
1960 births American male poets Bowdoin College faculty Brown University alumni Living people University of Notre Dame alumni Chapbook writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American male writers {{US-poet-1960s-stub