Brooks Haxton (born December 1, 1950) is an American poet and translator. His publications include nine books of original poems and four books of translations from the German, the French, and ancient Greek. In 2014 he published ''Fading Hearts on the River'', a book of nonfiction about his son's professional poker career.
Biography
Early years and education
Haxton grew up in
Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 34,400 at the 2010 census. It is located in the area of historic cotton plantations and culture known as the Mississippi Delta.
Hi ...
, and graduated from Greenville High School in 1968. He then attended
Beloit College
Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has ...
in Wisconsin, graduating with a BA in English literature and composition in 1972. He earned an M.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University in 1981. His parents, Kenneth Haxton (1919–2002) and Josephine Ayres Haxton (1921–2012), were both writers, although Kenneth Haxton was primarily known as a musician and composer. Josephine Haxton, a prominent southern fiction writer, used the pen name
Ellen Douglas
Ellen Douglas was the pen name of Josephine Ayres Haxton (July 12, 1921 – November 7, 2012), an American author. Her 1973 novel ''Apostles of Light'' was a National Book Award nominee.
Biography
Douglas was born in Natchez, Mississippi ...
.
Career
Brooks Haxton has received awards, fellowships, and grants of support for original poetry, translation, and scriptwriting from the NEA, NEH, Guggenheim Foundation, and other institutions. Haxton has taught poetry writing and literature courses for thirty years at several schools, including
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
,
Warren Wilson College
Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a requisite course of study, work an on-campus ...
, and
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...
. He has taught creative writing at Syracuse University since 1993, and he has been a member of the Warren Wilson College faculty since 1990, teaching in the low-residency MFA program for writers. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including the ''
Paris Review
''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...
'', ''
The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', ''
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 ...
'', the ''
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. ...
'', ''
Poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
'', and ''
Beloit Poetry Journal
The ''Beloit Poetry Journal'' is an American poetry magazine established in 1950 at Beloit College.
Haxton was the screenwriter for the documentary film "Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage" (1994), which appeared in the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
series ''
American Masters
''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...
'', season 9, episode 2.
In 2011 Haxton presented the Winslow Lecture at
Hamilton College
Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...
under the title “Candor and Wisdom: the Poetry of Early Classical Greece.” In 2013, he received the Hanes Award for Poetry from the
Fellowship of Southern Writers
The Fellowship of Southern Writers is an American literary organization that celebrates the creative vitality of Southern writing as the mirror of a distinctive and cherished regional culture. Its fellowships and awards draw attention to outstandi ...
, an organization that recognizes and encourages excellence in Southern literature. The award recognizes a distinguished body of work by a poet in mid-career.
Personal life
Haxton lives in Syracuse, New York, with his wife, Frances Haxton. They married on June 5, 1983. They have one son and twin daughters.
Bibliography
Poetry
* ''The Lay of Eleanor and Irene'' (Countryman Press 1985)
* ''Dominion'' (Knopf 1986)
* ''Traveling Company'' (Knopf 1989)
* ''Dead Reckoning'' (novel in verse) (Storyline Press 1989)
* ''The Sun at Night'' (Knopf 1995)
* ''Nakedness, Death, and the Number Zero'' (Knopf 2001)
* ''Uproar: Antiphonies to Psalms'' (Knopf 2004)
* ''They Lift Their Wings to Cry'' (Knopf 2008)
* ''Mister Toebones: Poems'' (Knopf 2021)
Nonfiction
* ''Fading Hearts on the River: A Life in High-Stakes Poker'' (Counterpoint 2014)
Translations
* ''Dances for Flute and Thunder: Praises, Prayers, and Insults (Poems from the Ancient Greek)'', Translator (Viking 1999)
*
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire.
Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote ...
: Fragments'', Translator (Penguin 2003)
*
Else Lasker-Schüler
Else Lasker-Schüler (née Elisabeth Schüler) (; 11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German-Jewish poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin and her poetry. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressi ...
, ''My Blue Piano'', Translator (Syracuse University Press 2015). Bilingual edition.
Awards
* 1984 Council for the Arts Grant, Washington D.C.
* 1985
Ingram Merrill Foundation The Ingram Merrill Foundation was a private foundation established in the mid-1950s by poet James Merrill (1926-1995), using funds from his substantial family inheritance.J. D. McClatchyBraving the Elements ''The New Yorker'', 27 March 1995. Retrie ...
Grant
* 1987 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
* 1988
New York Foundation for the Arts
The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...
Grant
* 2000
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...