Albert Goldbarth, GPC 2005-2006
Albert Goldbarth was born on January 31, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois. He received his BA
from the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle campus in 1969 and his MFA from
the University of Iowa in 1971. He taught at the Elgin Community College in
Chicago until 1972 and as a coordinator for the Traveling Writers Workshop for
public schools in the Chicago area. In 1974, he completed a year of classes at
the University of Utah while working toward his PhD in creative writing. Over a
year's time, Goldbarth received the Poetry
Northwest Theodore Roethke Prize, published a chapbook, Under Cover, and had completed
two full-length poetry collections, Coprolites
and Opticks
(published in 1974). He left Utah early to pursue a teaching career and worked
briefly at Cornell and Syracuse Universities before moving to the University of
Texas, Austin, where he taught from 1977 to 1987. Since then, he has
published more than twenty-five collections of poetry, including The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems
1972-2007 (Graywolf Press, 2007). His Saving Lives (2001) and Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology
(1991) both won the National Book Critics Circle award for poetry; Goldbarth is
the only poet to have received the award twice. Popular Culture (1990) received the Ohio State
University Press / The Journal
Award, and Jan. 31
(1974) was nominated in 1975 for the National Book Award. When asked about
the "job of poetry," Goldbarth told The Missouri Review, "It's not my place to
define the job of poetry, but a lot of my poems do try to serve as memorials,
as segments of frozen time that save people or cultural moments that have otherwise
passed away or are in danger of passing away. "Goldbarth was invited
to edit Every Pleasure: The
"Seneca Review" Long Poem Anthology (1979). He has also
written several collections of essays, including Many Circles (Graywolf Press, 2001), winner of
the PEN West Creative Nonfiction Award; A
Sympathy of Souls (1990), and Great
Topics of the World (1994), as well as a novel, Pieces of Payne (Graywolf
Press, 2001). His work has been featured in numerous anthologies, including The Harvard Book of Contemporary Poetry
(Harvard University Press, 1985).He is Adele Davis Distinguished
Professor of Humanities at Wichita State University, where he has taught since
1987. He lives in Wichita, Kansas.
Additional Links:
“The Way.” The New Yorker. October 13,
2008
Dial “H” For
Hero. The Gettysburg
Review. Spring 2007.
“Library.” Poetry Daily.
“Shawl.” Poetry Out Loud.
“The Craft Lecture
to the Creative Writers of the Low-residency Program at Yadda Yadda
University, with a Late Assist from Wallace Stevens, Robert
Frost, Maxine Kumin, Sir Thomas Browne, and Allusion to the Title of an
Early Book of Jorie Graham’s.” Beliot Poetry Journal.
McHenry, Eric. “The Mode Not Take: The Wacky, Talky, Fat Poetry of Albert Goldbarth.” Slate. 7 May 2002.
Richard Siken-Golbarth interview. “Albert Goldbarth Wins Mark Train Award for Humorous Poetry.” Poetry Foundation. 2008.
Interview with Goldbarth on poets.org.
Poets.org bio and entry for Goldbarth.
Poetry foundation entry and bio.
A complete list of Albert Goldbarth’s works.