This year’s Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry is being given to Debora Greger and William Logan; the accompanying lectures, readings, receptions and book signings will take place March 19–21. Events begin on Tuesday, March 19, with a lecture by David Yezzi (editor of the New Criterion) on “The Perfect Moods of William Logan” at 4:30 p.m. in McGriff Alumni Hall. This and all lectures and readings are followed by a reception and an opportunity to purchase books by the poets and lecturers. William Logan’s Aiken Taylor reading is at 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 20, in Convocation Hall.
At 4 p.m., Thursday, March 21, Emily Grosholz (liberal arts research professor of philosophy, African American studies and English at Penn State University) will lecture on “The Landscapes of Debora Greger” in the McGriff Alumni Hall. Debora Greger will give the final reading at 8 p.m., Thursday, March 21, in Convocation Hall.
The most significant prize administered by the Sewanee Review, the Aiken Taylor Award was established in 1987 to honor an accomplished American poet for the work of his or her career. The award was made possible through the generous bequest of Dr. K. P. A. Taylor, a surgeon who was an excellent amateur poet, to celebrate distinguished American poets, especially his older brother, Conrad Aiken. Howard Nemerov was the first honored and was followed by Richard Wilbur, Anthony Hecht, W. S. Merwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maxine Kumin, Wendell Berry and, more recently, Anne Stevenson, John Haines, Donald Hall, Louise Glück and Billy Collins.
Greger is a poet and visual artist who finds inspiration for each of her genres in the other. Known for her intersections of myth, fact, history and everyday life—both in her poetry and her visual art—she encourages her writing students to find these connections as well, especially by looking for inspiration in the visual arts. Greger herself tried to submit a quilt in place of an essay when she was a student at Iowa (the effort was, unfortunately, unsuccessful). A reviewer for Publishers Weekly once remarked that Greger “rarely rejoices, though she can surely console; her pruned-back, autumnal sensibility and her balanced lines suit the scenes she portrays.”
She is the author of eight books of poetry, including “Movable Islands” (1980) and “By Herself” (2012). Her award-winning collection “Desert Fathers, Uranium Daughters” (1996) draws its themes from her childhood—her father worked at the Hanford Site, a plutonium production facility constructed as part of the Manhattan Project in 1943, whose plutonium was used in both the first nuclear bomb ever tested and the bomb detonated over Nagasaki. The Nation characterizes her style as exhibiting “deadpan wit, intelligence and marvelous insight.” Greger’s poetry has been published in numerous periodicals and reprinted in six volumes of “The Best American Poetry.” She has exhibited her collage artwork at several galleries and museums across the country and has designed several book covers, including William Logan’s collection “Desperate Measures” (2002).
William Logan is a poet and literary critic known for formality and structure in his own writing. Since 1975 he has published a vast amount of work—both criticism and poetry—in such major publications as the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Paris Review, Poetry and the New Criterion. He is the author of nine books of poetry, including “Sad-Faced Men” (1982) and “Madame X” (2012). Along with essays and reviews, Logan has also written and edited six books of criticism, the most recent of which is “Our Savage Art,” published in 2009.
Richard Tillinghast has described Logan as an “accomplished and original poet . . . [who] writes with vigor, almost classical restraint and a fine sense of musicality.” Poetry’s editor, Christian Wiman, offered this analysis of the power of Logan’s criticism: “William Logan is the best practical critic around. I sometimes disagree with his judgments fiercely, but that I so fiercely disagree, that his prose provokes such a response, is what makes him the best. Most criticism is like most poetry: it simply leaves you indifferent. I’ve seen Logan’s name bring bile to the lips of the gentlest spirits . . . For breadth of intelligence, an incisive style and pure passion, I don’t think he can be matched.”
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