Henry Splawn Taylor (born June 21, 1942) is an American poet, author of more than 15 books of poems, translation, and nonfiction, and winner of the 1986

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

. Taylor was born in

Lincoln, Virginia Lincoln is a historic unincorporated village in the Loudoun Valley of Loudoun County, Virginia, located approximately south of Purcellville. It was established as the community of Goose Creek during the 1750s by Quaker settlers and renamed "Linc ...

, in rural

Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun C ...

, where he was raised as a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

."Henry Taylor (1942– )"
Daniel Cross Turner. ''Encyclopedia Virginia'' (encyclopediavirginia.org). Retrieved 23 October 2011. He went to high school at

George School George School is a private Quaker (Society of Friends) boarding and day high school located on a rural campus in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania ( Newtown postal address). It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown ...

in Newtown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

in 1965 and received his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from

Hollins University Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States ...

(formerly Hollins College) in 1966. He taught literature and co-directed the

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

program in creative writing at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

from 1971–2003. Taylor won 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 poetry in 1986 for his book ''The Flying Change''. His additional honors include two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two awards from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry. Since 2015 he and his wife, fiber artist Mooshe Taylor, have lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Bibliography

*''This Tilted World Is Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1962-2020'', Louisiana State University Press, 2020. *''Crooked Run'', Louisiana State University Press, 2006. *''Brief Candles: 101 Clerihews'', Louisiana State University Press, 2000. *''Electra'' (a verse translation of Sophocles’ play in Sophocles I), University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. *''Understanding Fiction: Poems, 1986–1996'', Louisiana State University Press, 1996. *''

Curculio ''Curculio'' is a genus of weevils belonging the family Curculionidae and subfamily Curculioninae. Members of the genus are commonly referred to as acorn weevils or nut weevils as they infest the seeds of trees such as oaks and hickories. The ...

'' (a translation of the play by Titus Maccius Plautus in Plautus: The Comedies, Volume 1), Johns Hopkins University Press. *''Compulsory Figures: Essays on Recent American Poets'', Louisiana State University Press, 1992. *''The Flying Change'', Louisiana State University Press, 1986. *''The Children of Herakles'', Oxford University Press, 1982. *''The Water of Light: A Miscellany in Honor of Brewster Ghiselin'', University of Utah Press, 1976. *''An Afternoon of Pocket Billiards'', University of Utah Press, 1975. *''Poetry: Points of Departure'', Winthrop, 1974. *''Breakings'', Solo Press, 1969. *''The Girl in the Black Raincoat'', Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1966. ASIN B000FREQKI *''The Horse Show at Midnight and An Afternoon of Pocket Billiards'', Louisiana State University Press, 1965.

References

External links

Interview with Taylor in the Courtland Review
* American male poets Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Hollins University alumni University of Virginia alumni People from Loudoun County, Virginia 1942 births Living people 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers George School alumni {{US-poet-1940s-stub