Stephen Elliot Dunn (June 24, 1939June 24, 2021) was 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 ...

and educator who authored twenty-one collections of poetry. He won the

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 ...

for his 2001 collection, ''Different Hours,'' and received an Academy Award in Literature from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

. He also won three National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Rockefeller Foundations Fellowship.

Early life

Dunn was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York on June 24, 1939. His parents were Ellen (Fleishman) and Charles Dunn. He attended Forest Hills High School, where he played basketball. After graduating in 1957, he studied history at Hofstra University. He played

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

for its

basketball team Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and was part of the squad that had a 23–1 record during the 1959–60 season. He was nicknamed "Radar" for his ability to make jump shots. Dunn graduated from Hofstra University in 1962 and went on to play one season for the Williamsport Billies of the Eastern Basketball Association. He then worked in advertising until he was 26, when he traveled to Spain to pen a novel, which he ended up discarding. He subsequently undertook

postgraduate studies Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and struc ...

at Syracuse University, obtaining a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

in 1970.

Career

Dunn began teaching at

Stockton University Stockton University is a public university in Galloway Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. It is named for Richard Stockton, one of the New Jersey signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence ...

in 1974 and published his first full-length collection entitled ''Looking for Holes in the Ceiling'' that same year. He continued working at Stockton for approximately three decades, and also taught at

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. A collection of essays about Dunn's poetry was published in 2013. He finished his last book, ''The Not Yet Fallen World'', shortly before his death. It is scheduled to be published in May 2022, and was viewed by Dunn as the best work he had written.

Personal life

Dunn married his first wife, Lois Kelly, in 1964. Together, they had two children: Susanne and Andrea. They divorced in 2001. He married Barbara Hurd the following year. Dunn had earlier lived in

Port Republic, New Jersey Port Republic is a city on the Mullica River, located in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 1,101, a decrease of 14 (−1.3%) from the 2010 census count of 1,115, wh ...

. He later resided at homes in

Ocean City, New Jersey Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the principal city of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Cape May County and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, ...

, as well as Hurd's hometown of

Frostburg, Maryland Frostburg is a city in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, and is at the head of the Georges Creek Valley. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located west of Cumberland, the town is one of the first cities ...

.Strauss, Robert
"Ode to Joi(sey)"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', April 27, 2003. Accessed October 9, 2007. "Mr. Dunn, who used to live in Port Republic, a remote town in the interior of South Jersey, now divides his time between Ocean City and his wife's hometown, Frostburg, Md." He died on the night of his 82nd birthday at his home in Frostburg. He suffered from

Parkinson’s disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a chronic condition, long-term neurodegeneration, degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disea ...

prior to his death.

Selected bibliography

Poetry

Collections

* * *''Full of Lust and Good Usage'', Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1976. *''A Circus of Needs'', Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1978. *''Work and Love'', Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1981. *''Not Dancing'', Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1984. *''Local Time'', Quill/Morrow (New York, NY), 1986. *''Between Angels: Poems'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1989. *''Landscape at the End of the Century: Poems'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1991. *''New and Selected Poems: 1974-1994'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1994. *''Loosestrife: Poems'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1996. *''Riffs & Reciprocities: Prose Pairs'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1998.
''Different Hours''
W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2000. *''The Insistence of Beauty: Poems'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2004. *''Local Visitations: Poems'', Norton, 2004, *''Everything Else in the World'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2006. *''What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009'', W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 2009.
''Here and Now: Poems''
W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2011. *''Lines of Defense'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2014. *''Whereas: Poems'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2017. *''Pagan Virtues: Poems'', W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2019. ISBN 978-1324002314 *''The Not Yet Fallen World: New and Selected Poems.'' W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2022. ISBN 978-0-393-88225-4.

Selected list of poems

Non fiction

''Walking Light: Memoirs and Essays on Poetry''
BOA Editions, Ltd., 2001.

References

External links

Author interview for Guernica Magazine (Guernicamag.com)Article on Dunn winning the 2001 Pulitzer PrizeStephen Dunn biography
* Audio
Stephen Dunn reads "Talk to God"
from the book ''What Goes On'' (vi
poemsoutloud.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Stephen 1939 births 2021 deaths American male poets Columbia University faculty Neurological disease deaths in Maryland Deaths from Parkinson's disease Hofstra University alumni People from Frostburg, Maryland People from Atlantic County, New Jersey Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Stockton University faculty Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Michigan faculty People from Ocean City, New Jersey The New Yorker people Williamsport Billies (basketball) players Hofstra Pride men's basketball players