Jim Powell 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 wri ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

, and

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

Career

Powell's poetry of 1977-2007 is collected in It Was Fever That Made The World (1989) and Substrate (2009). He has translated the poetry of Sappho (1993, rev. 2007 and 2019) and selections from other ancient Greek and Latin lyric poets, and published essays and reviews. Thom Gunn and Robert Duncan were teachers, mentors and friends; he was a member of Duncan's Homer Group. He was poet-in-residence at

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

(1988–90), a graduate student instructor at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(1981-1987), a

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

(1993–98), the Sherry Poet at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

(2005), and 2014 recipient of the Oscar Williams and Gene Derwood Award for Poetry.

Publications

* The Poetry of Sappho (2019, new & expanded edition) * Substrate (2009) * The Poetry Of Sappho (2007) * "To Sea Again, Dear Ship" (Common Knowledge 2007, 10 translations) * Catullan Revenants (2001 chapbook) * California Blue Indian Ghost Dance (2000 chapbook) * A Victorian Connoisseur Of Sunsets (1999 chapbook) * Sappho: A Garland (1993) * It Was Fever That Made the World (1989) * "The Recovery of the Creaturely World" (Threepenny Review 2014, on Lawrence's poetry) * "The Eternal Ones of the Dream" (Threepenny Review 2012, on Duncan's H.D. Book) * "Wendell Berry: Light in Darkness" (Threepenny Review 2011) * "Poetry Without Imposture" (Threepenny Review, 2008, on Thom Gunn) * "Reading The Canon" (Kean Review 2007) * "Poetry And Second Thoughts" (TriQuarterly 1993) * "In The Waiting Room" (TriQuarterly 1991) * "Basil Bunting and Mina Loy" (Chicago Review 1990) * "William Everson (Brother Antoninus") (Beat Generation Writers, Dictionary of Literary Biography) * "Rope Of Twined Lifetimes: The Poetry Of John Peck" (Occident 1980) * "The Light Of Vers Libre" (Paideuma 1979, on Pound's metric)

References

External links

Poetry Reading by Jim Powell ChicagoThe Poetry of Sappho Poetry Reading by Jim Powell Episode "Poetry and Politics" issue in ''Chicago Review''
American male poets Living people Reed College people University of Chicago people University of California, Berkeley alumni Year of birth missing (living people) MacArthur Fellows Chapbook writers {{US-poet-stub