Wiman to Receive 30th Aiken Taylor Award

Christian Wiman will be this year’s recipient of the Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry, the Sewanee Review announced recently. In addition to his writing, Wiman is also respected for translation, criticism and editing. The Review described him as “an important citizen in the republic of letters, not just for his creative work, but also for the ways he has fostered the careers of others—primarily as a landmark editor of Poetry magazine, joining the ranks of great past editors.”

At 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 18, in Convocation Hall, Vice-Chancellor John McCardell will make the presentation of the award, followed by a reading by Wiman and a reception. 

Adam Kirsch (poet and critic for the New Yorker, the New Republic and the New York Review of Books) will give a lecture on Wiman’s career at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 17, in the McGriff Alumni House, also followed by a reception. [See story on page 4.]

Events celebrating Wiman and the Aiken Taylor Award in its 30th year will be presided over for the final time by George Core, editor of the Sewanee Review for the past 43 years.

Wiman has published six collections of poetry, including “Every Riven Thing” (2010), named one of the New Yorker’s best poetry collections of the year, and “Once in the West” (2014), a finalist for the National Book Critics’ 

Circle Award. Wiman has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College and the Prague School of Economics. In 2003 he became editor of Poetry magazine. During his tenure, the magazine was honored with two National Magazine Awards. Wiman now teaches literature and religion at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

Through the generosity of K. P. A. Taylor, the Sewanee Review established in 1986 an annual award honoring a distinguished American poet for the work of a career. Howard Nemerov was the first poet honored and was followed by Richard Wilbur, Anthony Hecht and W. S. Merwin. The other recipients of this prize include Maxine Kumin, Wendell Berry, Donald Hall, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, William Logan, Debora Greger, Dana Gioia and last year, Marie Ponsot.

Marie Ponsot to Receive 29th Aiken Taylor Award

Marie Ponsot is the recipient of this year’s Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, announced the Sewanee Review. Known for her poetry and her translation, Marie Ponsot is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and in 2013 won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in American poetry.

Sewanee Vice-Chancellor John McCardell will present the award to Ponsot at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 25, in Convocation Hall; after the presentation, Ponsot will give a reading, and there will be a reception in her honor. 

On Tuesday, March 24, David Yezzi, poet and critic of Johns Hopkins University and the New Criterion, will give a lecture on Ponsot’s career at 4:30 p.m., in the McGriff Alumni House, also followed by a reception. At both events there will be opportunities to purchase books. 

Twenty-nine years ago, through the generosity of Dr. K. P. A. Taylor, the Sewanee Review established an annual award honoring a distinguished American poet for the work of a career. Howard Nemerov was the first poet honored and was followed by Richard Wilbur, Anthony Hecht and W. S. Merwin. The other recipients of this important prize include Maxine Kumin, Wendell Berry, Donald Hall, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, William Logan, Debora Greger and  last year, Dana Gioia.

A native New Yorker, Ponsot moved to Paris for three years at the end of World War II—a decision that altered the course of her life. On her Atlantic crossing she became friends with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who later published her first book of poems, “True Minds” (1957), on his City Lights Books press. In Paris she met the man who would be her husband for a time and father to seven of her children. While raising her children as a single mother, she never gave up on poetry.  “I did learn one great, crucial thing that I think every writer should be taught; that you can always find 10 minutes in the day to write,” Ponsot said. 

And write she did: six collections of poetry; more than 35 translations of fairy tales and fables from the French to English; and two books on the fundamentals of writings, still used in classrooms today. Ponsot taught in the graduate programs at Queens College for 30 years, as well as at Beijing United University, the Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y, New York University, and, most recently, Columbia University. Her honors include the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Prize, a creative writing grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Shaughnessy Medal of the Modern Language Association and the Robert Frost Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Society of America. 

Ponsot is a formalist—saying that forms “create an almost bodily pleasure in the poet. ... The forms are not restrictive. They pull things out of you. They help you remember.” She also thinks poetry should be deeply pleasurable, even fun: “We need to get back to the joy of being a poet—not have it always be written in anguish, or have to be mean spirited or edgy and black-browed and ominous. ... Poetry should just be a great joy, and we should have perfect freedom to enjoy it in that simpleminded way.”

For more information go to <re​view.sewanee.edu/about/aikentaylor>.

Gioia to Receive Aiken Taylor Award Feb. 19

The Sewanee Review is proud to announce that Dana Gioia is the recipient of this year’s Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry. 

Gioia, known for his poetry, criticism and arts advocacy, holds the newly created Judge Widney Chair in Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California.

The Aiken Taylor Award presentation will be 8:15 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 19, in Convocation Hall. Vice-Chancellor John McCardell will present the award to Gioia, followed by a reading by Gioia and a reception. 

Poet David Mason of Colorado College will give a lecture on Gioia’s career at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 18, in the McGriff Alumni House, also followed by a reception. There will be opportunities to purchase books at both events.

Gioia’s poetry, criticism and arts advocacy have earned him a swath of formal affirmations. He has been the recipient of 11 honorary degrees and numerous awards, including the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame. His widely praised third collection of poems, “Interrogations at Noon,” won the American Book Award. Gioia’s critical collection, “Can Poetry Matter? Essays on Poetry and American Culture,” was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the “Best Books of 1992.”

This volume also became a finalist for the 1992 National Book Critics Award in Criticism. 

In 1995 Gioia cofounded with Michael Peich the West Chester University summer conference on “Exploring Form and Narrative,” which is now the largest annual poetry-writing conference in the United States.

To learn more about Gioia, go to the Sewanee Review’s website, <www.sewanee.edu/sewanee_review/​aiken_taylor>.

Through the generosity of Dr. K.P.A. Taylor, the Sewanee Review established an annual award 28 years ago honoring a distinguished American poet for the work of a career. Howard Nemerov was the first poet honored and was followed by Richard Wilbur, Anthony Hecht and W. S. Merwin. 

The other recipients of this prize (which cannot be applied for) include Gwendolyn Brooks, Wendell Berry, Donald Hall, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, William Logan and Debora Greger.

Aiken Taylor Award Poetry Readings and Lectures March 19–21

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.”