David Wojahn (born 1953,
St. Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...
) is a contemporary American poet who teaches poetry in the Department of English at
Virginia Commonwealth University, and in the low residency MFA in Writing program at the
Vermont College of Fine Arts. He has been the director of Virginia Commonwealth University's Creative Writing Program.
Career
He was educated at the
University of Minnesota, and the
University of Arizona.
Wojahn taught for many years at
Indiana University. He has also taught at
University of Alabama,
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock) is a public research university in Little Rock, Arkansas. Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, the institution became a private four-year ...
,
University of Chicago,
University of Houston, and
University of New Orleans. In 2003, he joined
Virginia Commonwealth University in
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
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, mapsize = 250 px
, map_caption = Location within Virginia
, pushpin_map = Virginia#USA
, pushpin_label = Richmond
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. He also teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Poetry
Most of Wojahn's poetry is metrical although he also works in free verse, usually addressing political and social issues in American life. He often takes as his subjects moments of significance in popular culture, such as the assassination of
John Lennon, the professional decline of
Jim Morrison or the drowning of
Brian Jones. He has said that he hopes his poetry is considered "activist."
The poet
Richard Hugo selected Wojahn's first book, ''Icehouse Lights'', as a winner of the
Yale Series of Younger Poets
The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the Uni ...
prize. "David Wojahn's poems concern themselves with emotive basics: leaving home, watching those we love age and die, the inescapable drone of our mortality," Hugo wrote. "Yet as poems, they are far from usual. They help us welcome inside, again and again, the most personal of feelings."
Wojahn has gone on to publish seven more books of poetry, all with the
University of Pittsburgh Press. Wojahn has also edited a volume of poetry by his late wife,
Lynda Hull, entitled ''The Only World'' (HarperPerennial, 1995), as well as her more recent ''Collected Poems'' (Graywolf, 2006).
Awards
*
Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most p ...
* writing residencies from the
Yaddo, and McDowell colonies.
* 1987-1988
Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
* ''Icehouse Lights'', was chosen by Richard Hugo as a winner of the 1982 Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, winner of the Poetry Society of America's William Carlos Williams Book Award.
* ''Glassworks'', awarded the Society of Midland Authors’ Award for best volume of poetry
* ''Interrogation Palace: New and Selected Poems'' 1982-2004, was one of three named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, and winner of the
O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize
The O.B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize was awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library to honor a U.S. poet whose art and teaching demonstrated great imagination and daring. from the Folger Shakespeare Library
* In April 2007, Wojahn was one of two finalists for the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
for ''Interrogation Palace''.
* 2003
List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 2003
*
National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship
* Illinois Arts Council award
* the Fine Arts Work Center in
Provincetown, Fellowship
* William Carlos Williams Award
* Celia B. Wagner Award from the Poetry Society of America
* Vermont College's Crowley/Weingarten Award for Excellence in Teaching
* George Kent Prize from
Poetry magazine
''Poetry'' (founded as ''Poetry: A Magazine of Verse'') has been published in Chicago since 1912. It is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Founded by Harriet Monroe, it is now published by the Poetry Foundat ...
* three Pushcart Prizes.
* 2008 he was named VCU's Outstanding Faculty Award Winner
* 2008 Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize.
* 2013
Poets' Prize
The Poets' Prize is awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year. The $3000 annual prize is donated by a committee of about 20 American poets, who each nominate two books and who ...
Works
Poetry Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Essays
*
From the Valley of Making: Essays on the Craft of Poetry'. University of Michigan Press. 2015. .
* ''Strange Good Fortune'' (Arkansas, 2001)
Accessed June 17, 2007.
* "''The Language of My Former Heart" : The Memory-Narrative In Recent American Poetry'' (Published in ''Green Mountains Review'' 1988)
Edited
*
* ''Profile of Twentieth Century American Poetry'', with Jack Myers (Southern Illinois University, 1991)
References
External links
"Good Evening, Beautiful Deep: on Tranströmer's ''Sorrow Gondola''" at ''Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts'' v10n1
"Ochre" suite of poems at ''Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts'' v9n2
* ttp://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v4n1/nonfiction/wojahn_d/index.htm Interview with William Matthews by David Wojahn and James Harms on ''Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts'' v4n1
Q&A at smartishplace.com
Index of Wojahn's contributions to ''Ploughshares''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wojahn, David C.
1953 births
Living people
American male poets
National Endowment for the Arts Fellows
Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Poets from Minnesota
University of Alabama faculty
University of Arizona alumni
University of Chicago faculty
University of Houston faculty
University of Minnesota alumni
University of New Orleans faculty
Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty
Virginia Commonwealth University faculty
Yale Younger Poets winners