Dan Chiasson (; born May 9, 1971 in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...

) is an American poet, critic, and journalist. The ''

Sewanee Review ''The Sewanee Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism. History ''Th ...

'' called Chiasson "the country’s most visible poet-critic." He is the Lorraine C. Wang Professor of English Literature at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

. Chiasson is the author of six books: ''The Afterlife of Objects'' (University of Chicago Press, 2002), ''Natural History'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), ''One Kind of Everything: Poem and Person in Contemporary America'' (University of Chicago Press, 2007), ''Where's the Moon, There's the Moon'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), ''Bicentennial'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014) and ''The Math Campers'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 2020). Chiasson is currently working on "Bernie for Burlington: A Biography of his Rise in a Changing Vermont, 1968-1991," to be published by Pantheon in 2025.

Life

Chiasson grew up in Burlington, Vermont as the only child of his single mother. He attended Catholic schools, Mater Christi School and

Rice Memorial High School Rice Memorial High School is a coeducational Roman Catholic secondary and college preparatory school in South Burlington, Vermont. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington. The student body is mostly drawn from Northern and Centra ...

, from which he graduated in 1989. He graduated

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

in Classics and English from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

(1993), and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he received a Ph.D. in English and was awarded the Whiting Foundation Award in the Humanities. In addition to teaching at Wellesley, Chiasson has been affiliated with

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

's Master of Fine Arts program, with

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

's program in Paris, France, and with the Middlebury College Bread Loaf Environmental Conference in Ripton, Vermont. He lives in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a New England town, town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson Col ...

, with his wife and two sons. Chiasson is a longtime contributor to ''

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 ...

'' and ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''. He was the poetry editor (with

Meghan O'Rourke Meghan O'Rourke (born 1976 in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York) is an American nonfiction writer, poet and critic. Background and education O'Rourke was born January 26, 1976, in Brooklyn, New York. The eldest of three children born to Pa ...

), and later advisory editor, of 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 ...

''. His poems have been translated into many languages, including German by Jan Wagner. His ''Natural History'' was published as ''Naturgeschichte'' at Luxbooks, a publishing house focused on American poetry in bilingual editions. In the UK, he is published by

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

. He is on the editorial board of the literary magazine '' The Common'', based at Amherst College.

Honors and awards

* 2008 Award in Literature,

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

* 2008

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 ...

for poetry * 2004 Whiting Award

Bibliography

See also links in the External links section below.

Poetry

;Collections * * * * * ;Anthologies * ;List of poems

Criticism

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Online version is titled "Inside Bernadette Mayer’s time capsule".

References

External links

Search for Chiasson's work
in ''The New Yorker''
Search for Chiasson's work
in ''The New York Review of Books''
Search for Chiasson's work
in ''The Paris Review''
Profile
at The Whiting Foundation
Dan Chiasson interviewed by Christopher Lydon
"Whose Words These Are," Radio Open Source, May 27, 2010
"Amherst Poets Dream Date: Interview with Dan Chiasson"
by Josh Jacobs, September 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Chiasson, Dan Living people American male poets Poets from Vermont Poets from Massachusetts Amherst College alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Amherst College faculty Wellesley College faculty The New Yorker people Writers from Burlington, Vermont People from Sudbury, Massachusetts 1971 births American male essayists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American poets