Tom Sleigh
Encyclopedia
Tom Sleigh is an American
poet
, dramatist, essayist and academic, who currently lives in New York City
. He has published seven books of original poetry, one full-length translation of Euripides
' Herakles and a book of essays. At least five of his plays have been produced. He has won numerous awards, including the 2008 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, worth $100,000, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Shelley Award from the Poetry Society of America
, and a Guggenheim Foundation
grant. He currently serves as director of Hunter College
's Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in Creative Writing. He is the recipient of the Anna-Maria Kellen Prize and Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin for Fall 2011.
, where he lived until the age of five, when he moved to Utah
. He lived in Utah until seventh grade, when he moved to California
. He attended the California Institute of the Arts
, Evergreen State College, and the Writing Seminars Johns Hopkins University
for two years, where he graduated with an MA. In his mid-twenties he moved to Massachusetts
, to work at the Fine Arts Work Center
in Provincetown
. He began teaching at Dartmouth College
in 1986 and later taught at New York University
, the University of Iowa
, UC-Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in Brooklyn
, New York, and serves as director of the Hunter College Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing, where he also teaches poetry writing.
, Sleigh lists his poetic influences:
Prose works
Dramatic works
Translations
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet
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...
, dramatist, essayist and academic, who currently lives in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He has published seven books of original poetry, one full-length translation of Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
' Herakles and a book of essays. At least five of his plays have been produced. He has won numerous awards, including the 2008 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, worth $100,000, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Shelley Award from the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, and a Guggenheim Foundation
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
grant. He currently serves as director of Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
's Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in Creative Writing. He is the recipient of the Anna-Maria Kellen Prize and Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin for Fall 2011.
Life
Tom Sleigh was born in Mount Pleasant, TexasMount Pleasant, Texas
Mount Pleasant is the county seat and largest city of Titus County in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2000 census, Mount Pleasant's population was 13,935. It is the county seat of Titus County, and is situated in Northeast Texas. This town, by city ordinance, is dry to sell alcoholic beverages....
, where he lived until the age of five, when he moved to Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. He lived in Utah until seventh grade, when he moved to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. He attended the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
, Evergreen State College, and the Writing Seminars Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
for two years, where he graduated with an MA. In his mid-twenties he moved to Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, to work at the Fine Arts Work Center
Fine Arts Work Center
The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise devoted to encouraging the growth and development of emerging visual artists and writers through residency programs, to the propagation of aesthetic values and experience, and to the restoration of the year-round vitality of the historic art...
in Provincetown
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,431 at the 2000 census, with an estimated 2007 population of 3,174...
. He began teaching at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in 1986 and later taught at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, 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...
, UC-Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York, and serves as director of the Hunter College Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing, where he also teaches poetry writing.
Artistic influences
In an interview published in the literary journal AGNIAGNI (magazine)
AGNI is an American literary magazine that publishes poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and artwork twice a year in print and biweekly online from its home at Boston University...
, Sleigh lists his poetic influences:
I'd have to say that BrowningRobert BrowningRobert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
for his technique; Wallace StevensWallace StevensWallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
for a certain quality of gravitas, what Keats feels near his death, when he said he was living a sort of posthumous existence; Philip LarkinPhilip LarkinPhilip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...
for his sense of extremity; PoundEzra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
for his fluidity of conception and hardness of execution; Baudelaire for his music and intense scrutiny and affection for street life; and BishopElizabeth BishopElizabeth 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...
and LowellRobert 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...
for their immersion in the physical world, would be my fathers and mothers.
Published works
Poetry collections- Space Walk (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007)
- Far Side of the Earth (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003)
- The Dreamhouse (University of Chicago Press, 1999)
- The Chain (University of Chicago Press, 1996)
- Waking (University of Chicago Press, 1990)
- After One (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983)
Prose works
- Interview with a Ghost (Graywolf PressGraywolf PressGraywolf Press is an independent, non-profit publisher located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Founded on a dedication to the creation and promotion of thoughtful and imaginative contemporary literature essential to a vital and diverse culture, Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.Now...
, 2006)
Dramatic works
- Ice Trucker Pilgrimage, a multi-media opera (presented at San Francisco Film Festival 2006)
- The Knowledge and Conversation of My Holy Guardian Angel, or an Old-Fashioned Love Story (produced in 2004, New York Fringe Theater Festival)
- Rubber (performed at the Midtown International Theatre Festival, Raw Space Theater, New York City, 2002; winner of "Best of the Fest" award and a 2003 OOBR Award from the Off Off Broadway Review)
- Barbarosa (staged reading at Boston University's Playwright's Theater, 1998)
- Ahab's Wife (performed at Loeb's ART Institute, Boston, 1997; and Jim Henson Foundation's International Festival of Puppet Theater, New York City, 1998)
Translations
- Herakles by Euripides (Oxford University Press USA, 2000)
Honors and awards
- Kingsley Tufts Award (2008), for Space Walk
- Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- The Shelley Award from the Poetry Society of America
- Guggenheim Foundation Grant
- Ingram Merill Foundation Grant
- Two National Endowment for the Arts grants
Sources
- http://www.bu.edu/agni/interviews/online/2003/sleigh-wong.html
- http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2000/mar00/sleigh.html
- http://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?authorID=1425
- http://www.pw.org/content/poet_tom_sleigh_walks_away_100000
External links
- http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/creativewriting/sleigh.shtml - Tom Sleigh's official website
- http://www.slate.com/id/2120981/ - A recording of Sleigh reading his poem "The Hole"
- http://www.slate.com/id/2175506 - A recording of Sleigh reading his poem "Recording"
- http://www.bostonreview.net/BR21.5/sacks.html - A review of The Chain