Frank Bidart
Encyclopedia
Frank Bidart is an American academic and poet.
and Elizabeth Bishop
. He began studying with Lowell and Reuben Brower in 1962.
He has taught English at Wellesley College since 1972, including courses such as Modern Poetry. He has also taught at nearby Brandeis University
.
Bidart was the 2007 winner of Yale University’s Bollingen Prize
in American Poetry. His chapbook, Music Like Dirt, later included in the collection Star Dust, is the only chapbook to be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
.
He is openly
gay
.
Biography
In 1957, he began to study at the University of California at Riverside and went on to Harvard, where he was a student and friend of Robert LowellRobert Lowell
Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948...
and Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
. He began studying with Lowell and Reuben Brower in 1962.
He has taught English at Wellesley College since 1972, including courses such as Modern Poetry. He has also taught at nearby Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
.
Bidart was the 2007 winner of Yale University’s Bollingen Prize
Bollingen Prize
The Bollingen Prize for Poetry, which is currently awarded every two years by Beinecke Library of Yale University, is a literary honor bestowed on an American poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.-Inception and controversy:The...
in American Poetry. His chapbook, Music Like Dirt, later included in the collection Star Dust, is the only chapbook to be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
.
He is openly
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
.
Poetry
- Golden State (1973)
- The Book of the Body (1977)
- The Sacrifice (1983)
- In the Western Night: Collected Poems 1965–90 (1990)
- Desire (1997) received the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry PrizeTheodore Roethke Memorial Poetry PrizeThe Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize is an American poetry prize given once every three years since being established in 1967.The Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize has been offered in Saginaw, Michigan, since 1965. It is now administered by Saginaw Valley State University...
and the 1998 Bobbitt Prize for Poetry; nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award - Music Like Dirt (Sarabande BooksSarabande BooksSarabande Books is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1994, and located in Louisville, Kentucky, publishing poetry, fiction and nonfiction.The press was co-founded by Sarah Gorham and Jeffrey Skinner...
, 2002), the only poetry chapbookChapbookA chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
ever nominated for a Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... - Star Dust (2005), in two sections
- Watching the Spring Festival (2008)http://us.macmillan.com/watchingthespringfestival, Bidart's first book of lyrics
Other
- Editor, with David GewanterDavid Gewanter-Life:He teaches at Georgetown University, and lives in Washington, D. C., with his wife, writer Joy Young, and son James.His work has appeared in Ploughshares.-Awards:* 1999 Witter Bynner Fellowship, Library of Congress * Whiting Writer's Award...
, of Robert Lowell'sRobert LowellRobert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948...
Collected Poems (2003)
Awards and honors
- The Paris Review's first Bernard F. Conners PrizeBernard F. Connors Prize for PoetryThe Bernard F. Conners Prize for Poetry is given by the Paris Review "for the finest poem over 200 lines published in The Paris Review in a given year", according to the magazine. The winner is awarded $1,000....
for "The War of Vaslav Nijinsky" (1981) - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(1992)* Wallace Stevens Award (2000) - Elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American PoetsAcademy of American PoetsThe Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
(2003) - Bollingen PrizeBollingen PrizeThe Bollingen Prize for Poetry, which is currently awarded every two years by Beinecke Library of Yale University, is a literary honor bestowed on an American poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.-Inception and controversy:The...
in American Poetry (2007) - Lila Wallace-Reader's DigestReader's DigestReader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
Foundation Writer's Award - Morton Dauwen Zabel Award given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Shelley Award of the Poetry Society of America