Edmund Skellings
Encyclopedia
Edmund Skellings is a poet
and has been the Poet Laureate
of Florida
since 1980. Skellings graduated with English honors from the University of Massachusetts
, Amherst. He received his doctorate in English from the University of Iowa
, where he taught prosody and metrics in the Iowa Writer's Workshop. He published the first record-book, Duels and Duets, whose covers contained vinyl recording of the poet's voice.
. Skellings also organized the Alaska Flying Poets (an Upward Bound
project), a group of five professors from the Workshop who flew a small airplane around Alaska and the Midwest to talk to high school students about the value of learning to write well. The program was an enormous success and influenced many students to attend college.
In 1967, Skellings joined the faculty of Florida Atlantic University
where he taught Understanding Poetry and Shakespeare. He began to experiment with audio amplification and modification to augment his performance of poetry and billed himself as "The First Electric Poet." During the late 60's, he took his Electric Poet performance to scores of college campuses and appeared on numerous television shows.
In 1973, Skellings became Director of the International Institute of Creative Communication at Florida International University
which brought poetry in the schools programs to over 100,000 children in South Florida. Skellings then published three volumes of poetry: Heart Attacks (1976), Face Value (1977) and Showing My Age (1978) with the University Presses of Florida
. In 1980, after a competition of four hundred Florida poets, Governor Robert Graham appointed Skellings the Poet Laureate of the State of Florida, a lifetime honor. Skellings published a new collection of poetry, Living Proof (1985) with the University Presses of Florida. His most recent book is Collected Poems 1958-1998, published by the University Press of Florida, Gainesville. The book also contains a Compact Disc recording of Skellings reading fifty Selected Poems.
Edmund Skellings poetry has received high praise from some of America’s most respected poets. After reading Heart Attacks, Robert Penn Warren
wrote Skellings poems had, "True imagination, the real flash of language, the living rhythm." William Stafford wrote, "One of the greatest things since Shakespeare loosed Puck.” And Richard Eberhart
wrote, "Racy gifts. They hardly hold themselves down to earth."
Skellings purchased his first personal computer
in 1978, and immediately applied for a patent which used matching colors on a computer monitor to show relationships between alphanumeric s and symbols. He was awarded a United States patent for his color system in 1981, and later received similar patents from the United Kingdom and Canada. Skellings' system of organizing text on a color monitor led to the publication of a color authoring system entitled Electric Poet by International Business Machines Inc.
in 1984 and a further product entitled Easy Street by McGraw-Hill
.
In 1986, Skellings designed and implemented a microcomputer information system for The Florida House of Representatives and its district offices. The system was the first large scale legislative implementation of a token-ring network. It was one of the first government systems to utilize electronic mail to transfer documents.
Skellings became the founding Director of the Florida Center for Electronic Communication at Florida Atlantic University
in Fort Lauderdale in 1990. There he developed one of the first Master of Fine Arts
degrees in Computer Arts in the country. The Florida Center for Electronic Communication achieved an international reputation for the quality of its graduate program and the unique form of award-winning animated computer poems Skellings taught his students to create. Students wrote their own poems or selected favorite poems on which to base their imagery. They recorded the audio of the poem and occasionally collaborated with a musician to create a musical score for their animation.
In 2002, Skellings won the Videographer Crystal Award of Excellence for his video disc Word Songs, a surround sound recording of his own poetry and the first collection of 3D animated poetry in the world.
The Evans Library of the Florida Institute of Technology
is currently digitizing Edmund Skellings innovative multimedia archives. The project began during the summer of 2009 and completion is expected by summer of 2011. The Edmund Skellings Collection contains literary correspondence, reviews of Skellings' poetry and innovative research, publications, lectures, and interviews.
Dr. Edmund Skellings was appointed a University Professor of Humanities at the Florida Institute of Technology in 2008. He divides his time writing poetry and promoting programs in the humanities.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and has been the Poet Laureate
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
since 1980. Skellings graduated with English honors from the University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
, Amherst. He received his doctorate in English from the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
, where he taught prosody and metrics in the Iowa Writer's Workshop. He published the first record-book, Duels and Duets, whose covers contained vinyl recording of the poet's voice.
Biography
In 1963, he founded the Alaska Writer's Workshop at the University of Alaska in FairbanksUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks, located in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska System, and is abbreviated as Alaska or UAF....
. Skellings also organized the Alaska Flying Poets (an Upward Bound
Upward Bound
Upward Bound is a federally funded educational program within the United States. The program is one of a cluster of programs referred to as TRIO, all of which owe their existence to the federal Higher Education Act of 1965. Upward Bound programs are implemented and monitored by the United States...
project), a group of five professors from the Workshop who flew a small airplane around Alaska and the Midwest to talk to high school students about the value of learning to write well. The program was an enormous success and influenced many students to attend college.
In 1967, Skellings joined the faculty of Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University, also referred to as FAU or Florida Atlantic, is a public, coeducational, research university located in , United States. The university has six satellite campuses located in the Florida cities of Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, Port St. Lucie, and in Fort...
where he taught Understanding Poetry and Shakespeare. He began to experiment with audio amplification and modification to augment his performance of poetry and billed himself as "The First Electric Poet." During the late 60's, he took his Electric Poet performance to scores of college campuses and appeared on numerous television shows.
In 1973, Skellings became Director of the International Institute of Creative Communication at Florida International University
Florida International University
Florida International University is an American public research university in metropolitan Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus in University Park...
which brought poetry in the schools programs to over 100,000 children in South Florida. Skellings then published three volumes of poetry: Heart Attacks (1976), Face Value (1977) and Showing My Age (1978) with the University Presses of Florida
University Press of Florida
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing arm of the State University System of Florida representing all eleven universities, and is charged by the Florida Board of Governors with publishing books of intellectual distinction and significance, books that contribute to improving the...
. In 1980, after a competition of four hundred Florida poets, Governor Robert Graham appointed Skellings the Poet Laureate of the State of Florida, a lifetime honor. Skellings published a new collection of poetry, Living Proof (1985) with the University Presses of Florida. His most recent book is Collected Poems 1958-1998, published by the University Press of Florida, Gainesville. The book also contains a Compact Disc recording of Skellings reading fifty Selected Poems.
Edmund Skellings poetry has received high praise from some of America’s most respected poets. After reading Heart Attacks, Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...
wrote Skellings poems had, "True imagination, the real flash of language, the living rhythm." William Stafford wrote, "One of the greatest things since Shakespeare loosed Puck.” And Richard Eberhart
Richard Eberhart
Richard Ghormley Eberhart was an American poet who published more than a dozen books of poetry and approximately twenty works in total...
wrote, "Racy gifts. They hardly hold themselves down to earth."
Skellings purchased his first personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
in 1978, and immediately applied for a patent which used matching colors on a computer monitor to show relationships between alphanumeric s and symbols. He was awarded a United States patent for his color system in 1981, and later received similar patents from the United Kingdom and Canada. Skellings' system of organizing text on a color monitor led to the publication of a color authoring system entitled Electric Poet by International Business Machines Inc.
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
in 1984 and a further product entitled Easy Street by McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
.
In 1986, Skellings designed and implemented a microcomputer information system for The Florida House of Representatives and its district offices. The system was the first large scale legislative implementation of a token-ring network. It was one of the first government systems to utilize electronic mail to transfer documents.
Skellings became the founding Director of the Florida Center for Electronic Communication at Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University, also referred to as FAU or Florida Atlantic, is a public, coeducational, research university located in , United States. The university has six satellite campuses located in the Florida cities of Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, Port St. Lucie, and in Fort...
in Fort Lauderdale in 1990. There he developed one of the first Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
degrees in Computer Arts in the country. The Florida Center for Electronic Communication achieved an international reputation for the quality of its graduate program and the unique form of award-winning animated computer poems Skellings taught his students to create. Students wrote their own poems or selected favorite poems on which to base their imagery. They recorded the audio of the poem and occasionally collaborated with a musician to create a musical score for their animation.
In 2002, Skellings won the Videographer Crystal Award of Excellence for his video disc Word Songs, a surround sound recording of his own poetry and the first collection of 3D animated poetry in the world.
The Evans Library of the Florida Institute of Technology
Florida Institute of Technology
Florida Institute of Technology, also known as Florida Tech, is an independent private technical research university located in Melbourne, Florida, United States. Founded in 1958 as Brevard Engineering College, the institute has been known by its present name since 1966. Florida Tech's curriculum...
is currently digitizing Edmund Skellings innovative multimedia archives. The project began during the summer of 2009 and completion is expected by summer of 2011. The Edmund Skellings Collection contains literary correspondence, reviews of Skellings' poetry and innovative research, publications, lectures, and interviews.
Dr. Edmund Skellings was appointed a University Professor of Humanities at the Florida Institute of Technology in 2008. He divides his time writing poetry and promoting programs in the humanities.
Poetry
- Collected Poems, (University Press of FloridaUniversity Press of FloridaThe University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing arm of the State University System of Florida representing all eleven universities, and is charged by the Florida Board of Governors with publishing books of intellectual distinction and significance, books that contribute to improving the...
, 1998) - Living Proof, (University Press of Florida, 1987)
- Showing My Age, (University Press of Florida, 1978)
- Face Value, (University Press of Florida, 1977)
- Heart Attacks, (University Press of Florida, 1976)
- The Marriage Fire, (Qara Press, 1963)
- Duels and Duets, (Qara Press, 1962)
- The Comma Cat, (Cornell Series, 1962) (children's verse)
Recordings
- Word Songs, (DVD, Florida Center for Electronic Communication, 2002)
- Selected Poems, (CD, University Press of Florida, 1997)
- Nearing The Millennium, (Compact CassetteCompact CassetteThe Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
, The Library of Congress, 1977) - Ultra-Red, (Compact Cassette, Black Box, 1973)
- The Marriage Fire, (LPLP albumThe LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, RCA Victor, 1963) - Duels and Duets, (LP, RCA Victor, 1961)
Software
- EasyStreet,(McGraw-HillMcGraw-HillThe McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
, 1986) - Electric Literature Series, (IBMIBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, 1984)- Electric Poet
- Comma Cat
- Dictionary Dog
Awards
- Walk of Fame, 1997, Rollins College
- Doctor of Fine Arts, 1995, International Fine Arts College
- Moretti Award, 1983, American Express-Hollywood Sun Tattler
- Florida's Poet Laureate, 1980, Lifetime Appointment
- Florida Governor's Award for the Arts, 1979, Artist