Sam Witt (born 1970) 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 ...

and

tenured Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

English professor who currently lives in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...

Life

Born in 1970 in

Wimbledon, England Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...

. He studied as an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

at 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 ...

and went on to receive his MFA from the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...

. ''Everlasting Quail'' was published in 2010 by the University Press of New England. Witt went on to spend a year in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

as a

Fulbright Scholar 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 ...

to work on his second book. Witt has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Iowa, the

New England Institute of Art The New England Institute of Art (NEiA) was a private for-profit art school in Brookline, Massachusetts. The school was founded in 1952 as the Norm Prescott School of Broadcasting and was one of the 45 Art Institutes in North America. The school ...

, Saint Petersburg State University, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and as a creative writing

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Department of

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 ...

. He was a member of the faculty at

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacifi ...

. He is now a tenured member of the English faculty at

Framingham State University Framingham State University (Framingham State or FSU) is a public university in Framingham, Massachusetts. It offers undergraduate programs as well as Graduate school, graduate programs, including MBA, MEd, and Master of Science, MS. History As ...

and served as Jaded Ibis Press poetry editor until its asset sale in January 2016.

Books and awards

Sam Witt's first book, ''Everlasting Quail'', was selected by judge Carol Frost for the Katharine Bakeless Nason Poetry Prize given by the

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 ...

run by

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 ...

. His second book, ''Sunflower Brother'', was awarded the Open Competition from the Cleveland State University Poetry Center and was published in 2006 by Cleveland State University Press. Witt won the

Dana Award The Dana Award is a literary award presented in short fiction, poetry and novels. It was founded in 1996 by literature professor and poet Mary Elizabeth Parker with the financial backing of Michael Dana.''Poets & Writers'', September/October 200 ...

for poetry in 2005. Sam Witt's work has been awarded a number of different awards since then, including: the Meridian Editors' Poetry Prize, 2008; the Briar Cliff Review Poetry Prize, 2008 for "Occupation: Dreamland;" and the Cultural Center of Cape Cod National Poetry Award, for "Dirge for the White Birds. . . ." "The Overburden in Hawktime" was chosen by poet Nicky Beer as the winner of the 2012 Pinch Literary Award for Poetry. Witt's third book of poems, "Little Domesday Clock" was selected for publication in 2017 as a part of the Carolina Wren Press Poetry Series.

Poetry

* Witt, Sam. (2001).
Everlasting Quail
'. University Press of New England. * Witt, Sam. (2007).
Sunflower Brother
'. Cleveland State University Poetry Center. * Witt, Sam. (2017).
Little Domesday Clock
'. The Carolina Wren Press Poetry Series.

External links

*Jason Stumpf, instructor in the Department of English at Providence College, published a review of ''Everlasting Quail'' in a Spring 2006 web symposium on Contemporary Poetry, at https://web.archive.org/web/20110720030604/http://itdp.providence.edu/Faculty/Stumpf/p_Silva.htm
Review of 'Little Domesday Clock'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witt, Sam Living people 1970 births American male poets University of Virginia alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Harvard University staff Whitman College faculty Place of birth missing (living people) British emigrants to the United States 21st-century American poets 21st-century American male writers