Claudia Emerson
{{short description|American academic, writer and poet}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Claudia Emerson
| image = Claudia Emerson2.JPG
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1957|1|13|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Chatham, Virginia, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|12|4|1957|1|13|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
| occupation = Poet, professor
| spouse = {{marriage|Kent Ippolito|2000}}
| education = University of Virginia (BA)
University of North Carolina, Greensboro (MFA)
| awards = Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2006)
Poet Laureate of Virginia (2008–10)
Guggenheim Fellowship (2011)
}}
Claudia Emerson (January 13, 1957 – December 4, 2014) was an American poet. She won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection Late Wife,{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/claudia-emerson|title=Claudia Emerson profile|work=poetryfoundation.org|access-date=December 4, 2014}}{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june06/emerson_05-04.html|title=Claudia Emerson Wins Pulitzer Prize for Poetry|work=PBS NewsHour|access-date=August 25, 2017|archive-date=January 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121234511/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june06/emerson_05-04.html|url-status=dead}} and was named the Poet Laureate of Virginia by Governor Tim Kaine in 2008.
Early life
Emerson was born on January 13, 1957, in Chatham, Virginia, and graduated from Chatham Hall, a preparatory school, in 1975.{{Citation|last=Ankrom|first=R.|title=Claudia Emerson – Poet-in-Residence '08|newspaper=Chatham Hall|year=2008|url=http://chathamhall.org/news/view/claudia-emerson-poet-in-residence-08|access-date=December 4, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207041632/http://chathamhall.org/news/view/claudia-emerson-poet-in-residence-08|archive-date=December 7, 2014}} She received her BA in English from the University of Virginia in 1979 and her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1991.{{Citation|title=Claudia Emerson|newspaper=Academy of American Poets|year=2014|url=http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/claudia-emerson|access-date=December 4, 2014}}
File:2011 06 03 ~ Carolyn, Claudia, Kelly ~ MaryWashingtonU.jpg
Career
Emerson published eight poetry collections through Louisiana State University Press's Southern Messenger Poets series: Pharaoh, Pharaoh (1997), Pinion: An Elegy (2002), Late Wife (2005), Figure Studies: Poems (2008), Secure the Shadow (2012), The Opposite House (2015), Impossible Bottle (2015), and Claude Before Time and Space (2018).
Three collections were published posthumously, The Opposite House (March 2015), Impossible Bottle (September 2015) and Claude Before Time and Space (February 2018).{{cite web|title=Impossible Bottle |publisher=LSU Press|work=Website|url=http://lsupress.org/books/detail/opposite-house/|access-date=December 6, 2014}}
In addition to her collections, Emerson's work has been included in such anthologies as Yellow Shoe Poets,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2D6aqhb651oC&pg=PA8 | title=Yellow Shoe Poets|publisher=LSU Press|year=1999|isbn= 978-0-8071-2451-2}}{{cite book|last=Garrett|first=George|title=The Yellow Shoe Poets|url=https://archive.org/details/yellowshoepoets100geor|url-access=registration|format=Cloth|edition=1st|year=1999|publisher=LSU Press|location=Baton Rouge, LA|isbn=0-8071-2450-8|page=264|access-date=April 28, 2006}} The Made Thing,{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/madething00leon | url-access=registration | page=[https://archive.org/details/madething00leon/page/13 13] |title=The Made Thing| publisher= The University of Arkansas Press|year=1999|isbn=978-1-55728-579-9}}{{cite book|last=Stokesbury|first=Leon|title=The Made Thing|url=https://archive.org/details/madething00leon/page/352|format=Cloth|edition=2nd|year=1999|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|location=Fayetteville, AR|isbn=1-55728-578-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/madething00leon/page/352 352 pp]}} Strongly Spent: 50 Years of Shenandoah Poetry,[http://web/page/normal/402.html Strongly Spent: 50 Years of Shenandoah Poetry]{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, news.wlu.edu; accessed December 4, 2014. and Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia.{{cite book|last=Kennedy|first=Sarah|title=Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia|url=http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/kennedy_smith.html|format=Cloth|edition=1st|date=September 2003|publisher=University of Virginia Press|location=Charlottesville, VA|isbn=0-8139-2222-4|access-date=December 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928052636/http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/kennedy_smith.html|archive-date=September 28, 2011|url-status=dead}}
Emerson served as poetry editor for the Greensboro Review and a contributing editor for the literary magazine Shenandoah.{{cite web|title=Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee Literary Review staff|publisher=Washington and Lee University|work=Website|url=http://shenandoah.wlu.edu/staff.html|access-date=April 7, 2006}}
In 2002, Emerson was Guest Editor of Visions-International (published by Black Buzzard Press).{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}{{Cite news |last=Davis |first=Tim |date=December 4, 2014 |title=Former Virginia poet laureate, Chatham native Claudia Emerson dies |work=Star-Tribune |url=https://www.chathamstartribune.com/news/article_8de28df2-7bf8-11e4-b957-4f7df01f2f30.html |access-date=March 29, 2022}} On August 26, 2008, she was appointed Poet Laureate of Virginia, by then Governor Tim Kaine{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/main/poets/virginia.html|title=Virginia|work=loc.gov}} and served until 2010.{{cite web|url=http://poetrysocietyofvirginia.org/poetry-people/poet-laureate/|title=Poets Laureate of Virginia|access-date=December 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728034613/http://poetrysocietyofvirginia.org/poetry-people/poet-laureate/|archive-date=July 28, 2017|url-status=dead}}, Poetry Society of Virginia; accessed December 6, 2014 In 2008, she returned to Chatham Hall to serve as The Siragusa Foundation's Poet-in-Residence.[http://chathamhall.org/news/view/claudia-emerson-poet-in-residence-08 Emerson profile] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207041632/http://chathamhall.org/news/view/claudia-emerson-poet-in-residence-08 |date=December 7, 2014 }}, ChathamHall.org; accessed December 4, 2014.
She taught at several colleges including Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. She spent over a decade at the University of Mary Washington, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, as an English professor and the Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry.{{cite press release|publisher=University of Mary Washington|date=April 17, 2006|url=http://www.umw.edu/universityrelations/news/archives/umws_claudia_emerson_wins_.php|title=UMW's Claudia Emerson wins Pulitzer in Poetry|access-date=April 27, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060906201238/http://www.umw.edu/universityrelations/news/archives/umws_claudia_emerson_wins_.php|archive-date=September 6, 2006}}
In 2013, Emerson joined the creative writing faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where she taught until her death in 2014 from colon cancer at age 57.{{cite press release |publisher=Virginia Commonwealth University |date= June 20, 2013 |url=http://www.news.vcu.edu/article/VCU_Adds_Pulitzer_PrizeWinning_Poet_to_English_Faculty |title=VCU Adds Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet to English Faculty|access-date=July 6, 2014}}{{Citation|last=Reid|first=Zachary|title=Claudia Emerson, Pulitzer-winning poet, dies at 57|newspaper=Richmond Times-Dispatch|year=2014|url=http://www.timesdispatch.com/entertainment-life/arts-literature/claudia-emerson-pulitzer-winning-poet-dies-at/article_9c7c9e08-3d99-59d1-9e23-13e3b66e1c3c.html|access-date=December 4, 2014}}
Personal life
Emerson married musician Kent Ippolito in 2000. The couple lived in Richmond, Virginia, and performed and wrote songs together.{{cite web|title=Fredericksburg Songwriters' Showcase|publisher=Webliminal.com|work=Website|url=http://webliminal.com/songwrite/emerson.html|access-date=December 19, 2006}} After missing most of the Fall 2014 semester while seeking cancer treatments, Claudia Emerson died on December 4, 2014, in Richmond at the age of 57 from complications associated with colon cancer.{{Citation|last=Estes|first=Lindley|title=Distinguished poet, Pulitzer Prize-winner Claudia Emerson dies|newspaper=The Free Lance-Star|year=2014|url=http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/education/distinguished-poet-pulitzer-prize-winner-claudia-emerson-dies/article_85277ea8-7bd4-11e4-9f9f-735245c842d8.html|access-date=December 4, 2014}}
Awards and honors
- The Association of Writers and Writing Programs Intro Award, 1991
- Academy of American Poets Prize, 1991
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1994 (As Claudia Emerson Andrews){{cite book|last=Stolls|first=Amy|author2=David Kipen|author3=Jon Peede|author4=Paulette Beete|author5=Campbell Irving|author6=Pamela Kirkpatrick|author7=Garrick Davis|title=NEA Literature Fellowships: 40 Years of Supporting American Writers|year=2006|url=http://www.nea.gov/pub/NEA_lit.pdf|access-date=April 27, 2006|publisher=National Endowment for the Arts|location=Washington, DC|page=12|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710213735/http://www.nea.gov/pub/nea_lit.pdf|archive-date=July 10, 2009}}
- Virginia Commission for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, 1995 and 2002
- University of Mary Washington Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Award, 2003
- Erskine J. Poetry Prize, 2004 for "Second Bearing, 1919"{{cite web
| last = Emerson
| first = Claudia
| title = Second Bearing, 1919
| work = Smartish Pace
| date = December 4, 2014
| url = http://www.smartishpace.com/news/#201
| access-date = December 6, 2014
| archive-date = December 8, 2014
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141208103212/http://www.smartishpace.com/news/#201
| url-status = dead
}}
- Witter Bynner Fellowship from Library of Congress, 2005{{cite web|title=Witter Bynner Fellowships|publisher=Library of Congress|work=Website|url=https://www.loc.gov/poetry/prize-fellow.html#bynner|access-date=April 7, 2006}}
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 2006
{{cite web
| title =The 2006 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Poetry
| url = http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2006-Poetry
| access-date =December 6, 2014}}
- Poet Laureate of Virginia, 2008–2010[http://www.poetrysocietyofvirginia.org/poetlaureate.htm The Poetry Society of Virginia official website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726101332/http://www.poetrysocietyofvirginia.org/poetlaureate.htm |date=July 26, 2011 }}
- Library of Virginia, Virginia Women in History, 2009{{cite web
| title =Virginia Women in History: Claudia Emerson
| publisher =Library of Virginia
| date =2009
| url =http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/vawomen/2009/honoree.asp?bio=8
| access-date =December 6, 2014 }}
- Fellowship of Southern Writers, Inaugural Winner, Donald Justice Award for Poetry, 2009
{{cite web
| title =Awards
| publisher =Fellowship of Southern Writers
| date =2009
| url =http://thefsw.org/page/awards/
| access-date =December 6, 2014
| url-status =dead
| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070304102138/http://thefsw.org/page/awards/
| archive-date =March 4, 2007
}}
|title = Claudia Emerson: 2011 – US & Canada Competition -Creative Arts – Poetry
|publisher = John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
|date = 2011
|url = http://www.gf.org/fellows/17030-claudia-emerson
|access-date = December 6, 2014
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141208175520/http://www.gf.org/fellows/17030-claudia-emerson
|archive-date = December 8, 2014
}}
- Elected to Membership, Fellowship of Southern Writers, 2011{{cite web|title=Claudia Emerson to Be Inducted into Fellowship of Southern Writers
| last =Brady
| first =H.
|work =Media and Public Relations
| publisher =University of Mary Washington
| date =March 21, 2011
| url =http://www.umw.edu/news/2011/03/21/claudia-emerson-to-be-inducted-into-fellowship-of-southern-writers/
| access-date = December 6, 2014
}}
Bibliography
{{Expand list|date=April 2015}}
=Poetry collections=
- [https://lsupress.org/books/detail/pharaoh-pharaoh/ Pharaoh, Pharaoh]. LSU Press. 1997. {{ISBN|978-0807121597}}.
- {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xLQiDhsLe5IC&q=Claudia+Emerson |title=Pinion, An Elegy|publisher=LSU Press| year= 2002|isbn=978-0-8071-2766-7}}{{cite book|last=Emerson|first=Claudia|title=Pinion: An Elegy|url=http://s50780.sites40.storefront-hosting.com/detail.aspx?ID=531|format=Cloth|edition=1st|year=2002|publisher=LSU Press|location=Baton Rouge, LA|isbn=0-8071-2765-5|page=55 pp}}
- {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBz1QlvGPf0C&q=Claudia+Emerson |title=Late Wife: Poems|publisher=LSU Press| year= 2005|isbn=978-0-8071-3083-4}}{{cite book|last=Emerson|first=Claudia|title=The Late Wife|url=http://s50780.sites40.storefront-hosting.com/detail.aspx?ID=158|format=Cloth|edition=1st|date=September 30, 2005|publisher=LSU Press|location=Baton Rouge, LA|isbn= 0-8071-3083-4|page=54 pp}}
- {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPc3_iV2duwC&q=Claudia+Emerson | title=Figure Studies: Poems| publisher= LSU Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8071-3361-3}}{{cite book|last=Emerson|first=Claudia|title=Figure Studies|format=|edition=1st|date=September 2008|publisher=LSU Press|location=Baton Rouge, LA|isbn=978-0-8071-3361-3}}
- {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qjw7GtTpvvcC|title=Secure the Shadow: Poems|publisher=LSU Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-8071-4303-2}}{{cite book|last=Emerson|first= Claudia|title=Secure the Shadow|format=|edition=1st|date=February 2012|publisher=LSU Press|location=Baton Rouge, LA|isbn=978-0-8071-4303-2}}
- {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-uSroAEACAAJ&q=the+opposite+house+claudia+emerson|title=The Opposite House|publisher=LSU Press|year=2015|isbn=978-0-8071-5848-7}}{{cite book|last=Emerson|first= Claudia|title=The Opposite House|edition=1st|date=March 2015|publisher=LSU Press|location=Baton Rouge, LA|isbn=978-0-8071-5848-7}}
- {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHs-CgAAQBAJ&q=impossible+bottle&pg=PP1|title=Impossible Bottle|publisher=LSU Press|year=2015|isbn=978-0-8071-6083-1}}{{cite book|last=Emerson|first= Claudia|title=Impossible Bottle|edition=1st|date=September 2015|publisher=LSU Press|location=Baton Rouge, LA|isbn=978-0-8071-6083-1}}
- [https://lsupress.org/books/detail/claude-before-time-and-space/ Claude Before Time and Space]. LSU Press. 2018. {{ISBN|978-0807167861}}.
= List of poems =
| class="wikitable" |
| width=25%|Title
!Year !First published !Reprinted/collected |
|---|
| Early Elegy: Barber
|2013 |{{cite magazine |last=Emerson |first=Claudia |date=January 28, 2013 |title=Early Elegy: Barber |magazine=The New Yorker |volume=88 |issue=45 |pages=36 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/28/early-elegy-barber |access-date=April 8, 2015}} | |
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- {{officialwebsite|http://www.claudiaemerson.org/}}
- [http://lsupress.org/authors/detail/claudia-emerson/] Website for LSU Press with links to pages for books published
- [http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/claudia-emerson] Academy of American Poets Biography, bibliography and links to poems
- [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/claudia-emerson] Poetry Foundation Biography and links to poems and articles published in Poetry (magazine)
- Emerson, Claudia [http://southernspaces.org/search/node/claudia%20emerson Insistent Places] Southern Spaces, October 26, 2009
- [http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/u4785121 Claudia Emerson Papers] at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia
- [http://www.pulitzer.org/biography/2006-Poetry Pulitzer Prize website], Emerson profile
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060428040139/http://www.loc.gov/poetry/avfiles/Claudia_Emerson.mp3 Library of Congress reading (mp3 format file)] Interview and poems
- Kooser, Ted, [http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/columns/026.html American Life in Poetry: Column 26—Claudia Emerson's poem "Stable"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402034018/http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/columns/026.html |date=April 2, 2015 }} Emerson's poems "Migrane, Aura and Aftermath" and "What They Want" in Visions International (issue #67)
- [http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v1n2/nonfiction/williams_s/emerson.htm Williams, Susan Settlemyre, "Review | Pinion: An Elegy, by Claudia Emerson", Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Volume 1, No. 2] December 16, 2002
- Cheuse, Alan, [https://web.archive.org/web/20141207232547/http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2004/05/cheuse-wisely/ Radio interview with Claudia Emerson on With Good Reason], Virginia Commission for the Humanities, May 22, 2004.
- [http://www.valpo.edu/vpr/byrnereviewemerson.html Bryne, Edward. "Everything We Cannot See: Claudia Emerson's Late Wife"].
- [https://www.dailypress.com/2006/04/25/chatham-adds-to-literary-legacy/ Martz, Michael, "Chatham Adds To Literary Legacy"] April 26, 2006 (originally published as "Pulitzer-winning poet from Chatham Virginia: Professor latest with ties to town to bask in literary glory," in the Richmond Times Dispatch on April 20, 2006).
- [http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v1n2/features/emerson_c_121602/emerson_c.htm Williams, Susan Settlemyre, "An Interview with Claudia Emerson, Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Volume 1, No 2] December 16, 2002, transcript and audio file.
- [http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v1n2/nonfiction/williams_s/emerson.htm Williams, Susan Settlemyre, "Review | Pinion: An Elegy, by Claudia Emerson", Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Volume 1, No. 2] December 16, 2002
- Emerson, Claudia, [http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v2n1/poetry/emerson_c/ "Poems: The Bat, Pitching Horseshoes, Possessions, Surface Hunting", Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Volume 2, No. 1, (Spring, 2003)]
- Chappell, Fred, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070312093850/http://dwb.triangle.com/books/bookreview/story/2864228p-9321186c.html "Same mine yields different gems," Raleigh News and Observer review of The Late Wife] on December 25, 2005.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20141211112428/http://thefsw.org/page/members/elected-members/claudia-emerson Fellowship of Southern Writers Members Profile page]
- [http://www.cortlandreview.com/features/12/spring/ "Poets in Person: Claudia Emerson"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011001847/http://www.cortlandreview.com/features/12/spring/ |date=October 11, 2013 }}, HD Video in Fredericksburg, VA with Claudia and husband musician Kent Ippolito, The Cortland Review – Spring 2012 Feature, April 8, 2012.
- [http://cortlandreview.com/features/12/spring/emerson_music.php "Shot Her Dead"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730001901/http://www.cortlandreview.com/features/12/spring/emerson_music.php |date=July 30, 2012 }}, an original song performed by Claudia Emerson and Kent Ippolito, The Cortland Review – Spring 2012 Feature, April 8, 2012.
- [http://cortlandreview.com/features/12/spring/emerson.php 5 new poems in text and audio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011212100/http://www.cortlandreview.com/features/12/spring/emerson.php |date=October 11, 2012 }}, The Cortland Review – Spring 2012 Feature, April 8, 2012.
- [http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/pulitzer-prize-poetry-winners-to-read-at-vcu-event-wednesday/article_67d4017a-ba4c-524b-b815-72c1f94fb2e3.html Reid, Zachary, "2 Pulitzer Prize poetry winners to read at VCU event Wednesday"], Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 14, 2014.
{{PulitzerPrize PoetryAuthors 2001–2025}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Virginia Women in History}}
{{VA Poets Laureate|state=autocollapse}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emerson, Claudia}}
Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in Virginia
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Category:Virginia Commonwealth University faculty
Category:Writers from Virginia
Category:20th-century American poets
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