Merida Faculty - January 2009: C.D. Wright
Photo by Marnie Crawford Samuelson
C.D. Wright was born and raised in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.
C. D. Wright is the author of the following books of poetry:
Rising, Falling, Hovering, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 2008
One Big Self: An Investigation, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 2007
Like Something Flying Backwards: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Editions (Newcastle, England) 2007
Cooling Time: An American Poetry Vigil, (poetry, memoir and essay) Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 2005
Steal Away: Selected and New Poems, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 2001
Deepstep Come Shining, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 1998
Tremble, Ecco Press (Hopewell, NJ) 1996
Just Whistle: A Valentine, photographs by Deborah Luster, Kelsey Street Press (Berkeley, CA) 1993
String Light, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA) 1991
Further Adventures with You, Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 1986
Translations of the Gospel Back Into Tongues, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY) 1981
Terrorism (chapbook), Lost Roads Publishing (Fayetteville, AR) 1979
Room Rented by a Single Woman (chapbook), Lost Roads Publishing (Fayetteville, AR) 1977
Alla Breve Loving (chapbook), Mill Mountain Press (Seattle, Washington) 1976
C.D. Wright's poetry is included in numerous anthologies, including:
American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets (2006)
New Writings on Motherhood and Poetics, edited by Patricia Dienstfrey and Brenda Hillman, Wesleyan University Press
(Middletown, CT) 2002
An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate Diversity of Their Art, edited by Annie Finsh and Erin Belieu, University of
Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI) 2001
Poetry Performed, edited by Elise Paschen and Rebekah Mosby, Sourcebooks 2001
The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry, edited by Cray Nelson, Oxford University Press (New York, NY) 2000
The New Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, eds. Michael Collier and Stanley Plumly, Published for: Bread
Loaf Writers' Conference and Middlebury College Press by University of New England Press 1999
Other:
One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, photographs by Deborah Luster, Twin Palms (Austin, TX) 2003
Editor: Ploughshares, 2002-2003
Contributing Editor: Free Verse (Internet journal) 2001
Editor: Besmilr Brigham, Run through Rock: Selected Short Poems of Besmilr Brigham, Lost Roads Press (Barrington, RI) 2000
Contributing Editor: Five Fingers Revise, 1991-1997
C.D. Wright has been a contributor in many periodicals, including American Letters and Commentary, Brick, Chair, Conjunctinos, Fense, Document, Ironwood, American Poetry REeview, New Yorker and Sulphur.
In 1994, C. D. was Poet Laureate of Rhode Island and held that post from 1995-1999. She also authored two state literary maps, one for Arkansas, her home state and one for Rhode Island. With photographer Deborah Luster, she published One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, a large format, limited edition art book. The project won the Lange-Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and their collaboration exhibited at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City, and the Corcoran Museum in Washington, D.C. among others. On a fellowship for writers from the Wallace Foundation, she curated a “Walk-in Book of Arkansas,” an exhibition that toured throughout her native state for two years.
She received a B.A. from the University of Memphis and an M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas. She was a lecturer in poetry, writing and publishing at San Francisco State University from 1979-1981 and joined the faculty of Brown University in 1983. She has held Visiting Faculty positions at the Burren School of Art in County Clare, Ireland, at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and as 2004 Elliston poet-in-residence at the University of Cincinnati. From 1998-2000 C.D. was a member of the board of directors of the Howard Foundation, and a member of the board of directors of Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow. C.D. Wright edited Lost Roads Publishers with her husband, Forrest Gander, for 30 years.
C. D. Wright is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Lannan Foundation. Steal Away: Selected and New Poems was a finalist for the 2003 Griffin Poetry Prize. In 2004 she was named a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2005, she was given the Robert Creeley Award and elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Rising, Falling, Hovering, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 2008
One Big Self: An Investigation, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 2007
Like Something Flying Backwards: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Editions (Newcastle, England) 2007
Cooling Time: An American Poetry Vigil, (poetry, memoir and essay) Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 2005
Steal Away: Selected and New Poems, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 2001
Deepstep Come Shining, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA) 1998
Tremble, Ecco Press (Hopewell, NJ) 1996
Just Whistle: A Valentine, photographs by Deborah Luster, Kelsey Street Press (Berkeley, CA) 1993
String Light, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA) 1991
Further Adventures with You, Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 1986
Translations of the Gospel Back Into Tongues, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY) 1981
Terrorism (chapbook), Lost Roads Publishing (Fayetteville, AR) 1979
Room Rented by a Single Woman (chapbook), Lost Roads Publishing (Fayetteville, AR) 1977
Alla Breve Loving (chapbook), Mill Mountain Press (Seattle, Washington) 1976
C.D. Wright's poetry is included in numerous anthologies, including:
American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets (2006)
New Writings on Motherhood and Poetics, edited by Patricia Dienstfrey and Brenda Hillman, Wesleyan University Press
(Middletown, CT) 2002
An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate Diversity of Their Art, edited by Annie Finsh and Erin Belieu, University of
Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI) 2001
Poetry Performed, edited by Elise Paschen and Rebekah Mosby, Sourcebooks 2001
The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry, edited by Cray Nelson, Oxford University Press (New York, NY) 2000
The New Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, eds. Michael Collier and Stanley Plumly, Published for: Bread
Loaf Writers' Conference and Middlebury College Press by University of New England Press 1999
Other:
One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, photographs by Deborah Luster, Twin Palms (Austin, TX) 2003
Editor: Ploughshares, 2002-2003
Contributing Editor: Free Verse (Internet journal) 2001
Editor: Besmilr Brigham, Run through Rock: Selected Short Poems of Besmilr Brigham, Lost Roads Press (Barrington, RI) 2000
Contributing Editor: Five Fingers Revise, 1991-1997
C.D. Wright has been a contributor in many periodicals, including American Letters and Commentary, Brick, Chair, Conjunctinos, Fense, Document, Ironwood, American Poetry REeview, New Yorker and Sulphur.
In 1994, C. D. was Poet Laureate of Rhode Island and held that post from 1995-1999. She also authored two state literary maps, one for Arkansas, her home state and one for Rhode Island. With photographer Deborah Luster, she published One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, a large format, limited edition art book. The project won the Lange-Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and their collaboration exhibited at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City, and the Corcoran Museum in Washington, D.C. among others. On a fellowship for writers from the Wallace Foundation, she curated a “Walk-in Book of Arkansas,” an exhibition that toured throughout her native state for two years.
She received a B.A. from the University of Memphis and an M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas. She was a lecturer in poetry, writing and publishing at San Francisco State University from 1979-1981 and joined the faculty of Brown University in 1983. She has held Visiting Faculty positions at the Burren School of Art in County Clare, Ireland, at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and as 2004 Elliston poet-in-residence at the University of Cincinnati. From 1998-2000 C.D. was a member of the board of directors of the Howard Foundation, and a member of the board of directors of Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow. C.D. Wright edited Lost Roads Publishers with her husband, Forrest Gander, for 30 years.
C. D. Wright is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Lannan Foundation. Steal Away: Selected and New Poems was a finalist for the 2003 Griffin Poetry Prize. In 2004 she was named a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2005, she was given the Robert Creeley Award and elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ms. Wright is currently Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English at Brown University near Providence, Rhode Island.
"Poetry is a necessity of life. It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so."
-- C.D. Wright
“No single description adequately captures Wright’s work; she is an experimental writer, a Southern writer, and a socially committed writer, yet she continuously reinvents herself with each new volume.” — The MacArthur Fellows Program
"For a long while now, C.D. Wright has been writing some of the greatest poetry-cum-prose you can find in American literature."
— Dave Eggers
On Rising, Falling, Hovering: "C.D. Wright is one of America’s most compelling and idiosyncratic poets—an artist who has developed a unmistakable voice and penetrating vision. As Publishers Weekly noted in a starred review of her last book, “Wright gets better with each book, expanding the reach of her art; it seems it could take in anything.” Wright’s new book, Rising, Falling, Hovering, is an interweave of deeply personal and politically ferocious poems that write into the realities of our times—from illegal immigration and the specific consequences of Empire to the challenges of parenting and the honesty required of human-to-human relationship... " -- Copper Canyon Press
More about C.D. Wright "Poetry is a necessity of life. It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so."
-- C.D. Wright
“No single description adequately captures Wright’s work; she is an experimental writer, a Southern writer, and a socially committed writer, yet she continuously reinvents herself with each new volume.” — The MacArthur Fellows Program
"For a long while now, C.D. Wright has been writing some of the greatest poetry-cum-prose you can find in American literature."
— Dave Eggers
On Rising, Falling, Hovering: "C.D. Wright is one of America’s most compelling and idiosyncratic poets—an artist who has developed a unmistakable voice and penetrating vision. As Publishers Weekly noted in a starred review of her last book, “Wright gets better with each book, expanding the reach of her art; it seems it could take in anything.” Wright’s new book, Rising, Falling, Hovering, is an interweave of deeply personal and politically ferocious poems that write into the realities of our times—from illegal immigration and the specific consequences of Empire to the challenges of parenting and the honesty required of human-to-human relationship... " -- Copper Canyon Press
More about C.D. Wright at the Poetry Foundation website
and at the American Academy of Poets website