Joel B. Peckham, Jr. 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 ...

, scholar of

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

and a

creative writer Creative Writer is a word processor released by Microsoft Kids in 1993. Using this program, which is specifically targeted at children, it is possible to create documents such as letters, posters, flyers and stories complete with different fonts ...

Education

Peckham graduated from

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

Career

He has taught at the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman college class matricul ...

, and the

Georgia Military College Georgia Military College (GMC) is a public military junior college in Milledgeville, Georgia. It is divided into the junior college, a military junior college program, high school, middle school, and elementary school. It was originally known as M ...

. He currently teaches at

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...

. He has worked as an editorial assistant for the ''Prairie Schooner'', and is also co-founding editor of ''Milkwood Review''. His work has appeared in ''

American Literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

'', ''

Ascent Ascent or The Ascent may refer to: Publications * ''Ascent'' (magazine), an independent, not-for-profit magazine * ''Ascent'' (journal), a literary journal based at Concordia College * ''Ascent'' (novel), by Jed Mercurio * '' Times Ascent'', a ...

'', the ''

Black Warrior Review ''Black Warrior Review (BWR)'' is a non-profit American literary magazine founded in 1974 and based at the University of Alabama. It is the oldest continuously run literary journal by graduate students in the United States. Published in print bi ...

'', ''

The Literary Review ''The Literary Review'' is an American literary magazine founded in 1957. The biannual magazine is published internationally by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. In addition to the publication of short stories, poems, and ...

'', ''

The Malahat Review ''The Malahat Review'' is a Canadian quarterly literary magazine established in 1967. It features contemporary Canadian and international works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction as well as reviews of recently published Canadian litera ...

'', The ''

Mississippi Quarterly The ''Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Cultures'' is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that mainly covers Southern history and literature. Originally entitled ''Social Sciences Bulletin'', it was established in 1948 by John K. Bette ...

'', the ''

North American Review The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived a ...

'', '' Passages North'', '' River Teeth'', the ''

Sycamore Review ''Sycamore Review'' is an American literary journal based at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Each year, the journal awards the Wabash Prizes for Fiction and Poetry. Henry Hughes is the launch editor-in-chief of ''Sycamore Review'' ...

'', ''

The Southern Review ''The Southern Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes fiction ...

'', '' Texas Studies in Language and Literature'', '' Under the Sun'', and ''

Yankee Magazine ''Yankee'' is a bimonthly (once every two months) magazine about lifestyle, travel and culture in the New England region of the United States, based in Dublin, New Hampshire. The first issue appeared in September 1935. It has a paid circulation ...

''. His work, out of the tradition of Neo-Romantic and Open-Form 20th Century Poets such as

James Dickey James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 January 19, 1997) was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966. He also received the Order of the South award. Dickey is best known for his no ...

and

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

employs a Whitmanesque line to explore the limits of empathy and communication in American Life.

Personal life

In February, 2004, while on a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, Peckham was in an auto accident that took the lives of his wife, Susan Atefat Peckham, and his oldest son, Cyrus. This tragedy led to his exploration of nonfiction prose as a means of expressing and critically engaging with the grief and recovery experience. His prose style is alternatively lyrical, raw, self-aware, and analytical in the tradition of writers like

Viktor Frankl Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part ...

and

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

. He has since remarried and lives with his wife, Rachael, and son, Darius, in

Batavia, Ohio Batavia ( ) is a village in and the county seat of Clermont County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,509 at the 2010 census. Geography Batavia is located at (39.077332, -84.179160). According to the United States Census Bureau, the ...

.http://joelpeckham.com/blog/bio/

Awards

* Fulbright Scholar

Works

"Nightwalking", ''Valparaiso Poetry Review'', Spring/Summer 2001
* *

Anthologies

* *

References

External links

"Author's website"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peckham, Joel American male poets Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Hope College faculty Marshall University faculty Middlebury College alumni People from Batavia, Ohio University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty