Robert Wrigley (born 1951 in

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...

) is an American poet and educator.

Biography

In 1971 Wrigley was inducted into the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, filing for discharge as a conscientious objector. He received his M.F.A. in Poetry from the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fa ...

in 1976, where he studied under poets

Richard Hugo Richard Hugo (December 21, 1923 – October 22, 1982), born Richard Franklin Hogan, was an American poet. Although some critics regard Hugo as primarily a regionalist, his work resonates broadly across place and time. A portion of Hugo's work re ...

Madeline DeFrees Madeline DeFrees (also known as, Sister Mary Gilbert; November 18, 1919 – November 11, 2015) was an American poet, teacher, and Roman Catholic nun. Biography Born in Ontario, Oregon, Madeline DeFrees lived in Seattle, Washington. She joined t ...

, and John Haines. From 1987 to 1988 he served as writer-in-residence for the state of

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

, and has received fellowships from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, the Idaho State Commission on the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. His poems have been published in a number of journals, including ''

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 ...

'', ''

The Atlantic ''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, ...

'', '' Barrow Street'', and ''

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 ...

''. In 2003 and 2006 he had poems published in ''

Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general ...

'', and in 2013, his poem "Religion" appeared in ''The Best of the Best American Poetry: 25th Anniversary Edition'', selected by

Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky (born October 20, 1940) is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most o ...

. Wrigley is also the recipient of seven Pushcart Prizes. ''Reign of Snakes'' won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; ''Lives of the Animals'' won the 2005

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 ...

. ''In the Bank of Beautiful Sins'' won the San Francisco Poetry Center Book Award. ''Box'' won a 2017 Pacific Northwest Book Award. Wrigley retired from teaching (in 2016) at the M.F.A. program in creative writing at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The Universit ...

, where his wife,

Kim Barnes Kim Barnes (born 1958 Lewiston, Idaho) is a contemporary American author of fiction, memoir, and personal essays. She served as Poet Laureate of Idaho. Life She returned with her mother to their logging camp on Orofino Creek in the Clearwater ...

, a memoirist and writer, also taught until her retirement in 2020.

Bibliography

* ''The Sinking of Clay City'' (1979) * ''The Glow'' (1982) (chapbook) * Three broadsides - "The Beliefs of a Horse", "A Preference in Birds", "Surfaces" (1984) * ''Moon in a Mason Jar'' (1986) * ''In the Dark Pool'' (1987) (chapbook) * ''What My Father Believed'' (1991) * ''In the Bank of Beautiful Sins'' (1995) * ''Reign of Snakes'' (1999) * ''Clemency'' (2002) (chapbook) * ''Lives of the Animals'' (2003) * ''Earthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems'' (

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initi ...

, 2006) * ''Beautiful Country'' (2010) * ''After a Rainstorm'' (2010) * ''Anatomy of Melancholy & Other Poems'' (2013) * ''The Church of Omnivorous Light: Selected Poems'' (2013, UK) * ''Box'' (2017) * ''Nemerov's Door: Essays'' (2021) * ''The True Account of Myself As a Bird'' (2022)

References

External links

robertwrigley.com

Poetry Foundation: Robert Wrigley

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrigley, Robert American male poets University of Montana alumni University of Idaho faculty Living people Poets Laureate of Idaho 1951 births