Stephen Dunn
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Short description|American poet and educator (1939–2021)}}
{{About|the American poet|other people with similar names|Stephen Dunn (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Stephen Dunn
| image = Stephendunn024.JPG
| caption = Stephen Dunn at the 2012 National Book Festival
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1939|06|24}}
| birth_place = Forest Hills, Queens, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2021|06|24|1939|06|24}}
| death_place = Frostburg, Maryland, U.S.
| occupation = Professor and poet
| education = Hofstra University (BA)
Syracuse University (MFA)
| genre = Poetry
| awards = Pulitzer Prize for Poetry;
Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
}}
Stephen Elliot Dunn (June 24, 1939{{spnd}}June 24, 2021) was an American poet and educator who authored twenty-one collections of poetry. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 2000 collection, Different Hours, and received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.{{Cite web|title=Stephen Dunn: Influences|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/article/stephen-dunn-influences|access-date=June 27, 2021}} He also won three National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, Guggenheim Fellowship,{{cite web |url=http://pt.gf.org/fellows/3913-stephen-dunn |title=Stephen Dunn - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |access-date=September 27, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130414223623/http://pt.gf.org/fellows/3913-stephen-dunn |archive-date=April 14, 2013 }} and Rockefeller Foundations Fellowship.{{cite web|url=http://www.wiredforbooks.org/stephendunn/|title=Reading and Lecture by Stephen Dunn|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120428034529/http://www.wiredforbooks.org/stephendunn/|archive-date=April 28, 2012}}
Early life
Dunn was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York on June 24, 1939.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOb2DAAAQBAJ|title=A Study Guide for Stephen Dunn's "The Reverse Side"|isbn=9781410356642|accessdate=January 21, 2020|last1=Gale|first1=Cengage Learning|year=2016|publisher=Gale, Cengage Learning }} His parents were Ellen (Fleishman) and Charles Dunn.{{Cite news|last=Genzlinger|first=Neil|date=2021-06-25|title=Stephen Dunn, Poet Who Celebrated the Ordinary, Dies at 82|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/books/stephen-dunn-poet-dead.html|access-date=2021-06-28|issn=0362-4331}} He attended Forest Hills High School, where he played basketball. After graduating in 1957, he studied history at Hofstra University. He played guard for its basketball team and was part of the squad that had a 23–1 record during the 1959–60 season.{{cite news|title=Stephen Dunn, Poet Who Celebrated the Ordinary, Dies at 82|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/books/stephen-dunn-poet-dead.html|first=Neil|last=Genzlinger|date=June 25, 2021|access-date=June 25, 2021|newspaper=The New York Times}} He was nicknamed "Radar" for his ability to make jump shots.{{cite news|title=Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Finzel resident Stephen Dunn dies at 82|url=https://www.times-news.com/news/pulitzer-prize-winning-poet-finzel-resident-stephen-dunn-dies-at-82/article_6d5ee9d6-d4f2-11eb-8cee-abd52836a07a.html|first=Bryon|last=MacWilliams|date=June 25, 2021|access-date=June 25, 2021|newspaper=Cumberland Times-News|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625170301/https://www.times-news.com/news/pulitzer-prize-winning-poet-finzel-resident-stephen-dunn-dies-at-82/article_6d5ee9d6-d4f2-11eb-8cee-abd52836a07a.html|archivedate=June 25, 2021}}
Dunn graduated from Hofstra University in 1962 and went on to play one season for the Williamsport Billies of the Eastern Basketball Association.{{cite news |last1=Greenberg |first1=Ginny |title=Remembering Stephen Dunn |url=https://news.hofstra.edu/2021/06/25/remembering-stephen-dunn/ |access-date=4 August 2021 |work=Hofstra University |date=25 June 2021}} He then worked in advertising until he was 26, when he traveled to Spain to pen a novel, which he ended up discarding. He subsequently undertook postgraduate studies at Syracuse University, obtaining a master's degree in creative writing in 1970.{{cite news |last1=Gadoua |first1=Renée K. |title=Stephen Dunn Is Next Carver Speaker |url=https://news.syr.edu/blog/2013/11/06/stephen-dunn-is-next-carver-speaker-86257/ |access-date=4 August 2021 |work=SU News |date=November 6, 2013}}
Career
Dunn began teaching at Stockton University in 1974 and published his first full-length collection entitled Looking for Holes in the Ceiling that same year. He continued working at Stockton for approximately three decades, and also taught at Wichita State University, University of Washington, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Princeton University.{{cite web|url=http://faculty.asd.wednet.edu/~asmithson/dunn.htm|title=Stephen Dunn|website=faculty.asd.wednet.edu}}
A collection of essays about Dunn's poetry was published in 2013.{{cite book |editor1-last=McCullough |editor1-first=Laura |editor1-link=Laura McCullough |title=The Room and the World: Essays on the Poet Stephen Dunn |publisher=Syracuse University Press |date=December 15, 2013 |isbn=978-0815633358}} He finished his last book, The Not Yet Fallen World, shortly before his death. Dunn thought it was the best work he had written. It was published in May 2022, nearly a year after he died,{{cite news|title=Stockton University, friends and family mourn death of Stephen Dunn, Pulitzer winner and retired professor|url=https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/stockton-university-friends-and-family-mourn-death-of-stephen-dunn-pulitzer-winner-and-retired-professor/article_935e2750-d5c9-11eb-a60c-4f234202d8eb.html|first=Bill|last=Barlow|date=June 25, 2021|access-date=June 25, 2021|newspaper=The Press of Atlantic City|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625181037/https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/stockton-university-friends-and-family-mourn-death-of-stephen-dunn-pulitzer-winner-and-retired-professor/article_935e2750-d5c9-11eb-a60c-4f234202d8eb.html|archivedate=June 25, 2021}}
Personal life
Dunn married his first wife, Lois Kelly, in 1964. Together, they had two children: Susanne and Andrea. They divorced in 2001. He married Barbara Hurd the following year.
Dunn had earlier lived in Port Republic, New Jersey. He later resided at homes in Ocean City, New Jersey, as well as Hurd's hometown of Frostburg, Maryland.Strauss, Robert. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E4D7173DF934A15757C0A9659C8B63 "Ode to Joi(sey)"], The New York Times, April 27, 2003. Accessed October 9, 2007. "Mr. Dunn, who used to live in Port Republic, a remote town in the interior of South Jersey, now divides his time between Ocean City and his wife's hometown, Frostburg, Md." He died on the night of his 82nd birthday at his home in Frostburg. He suffered from Parkinson's disease prior to his death.
Selected bibliography
=Poetry=
==Collections==
- {{cite book |title=5 impersonations |location=Marshall, Minn. |publisher=Ox Head Press |year=1971|lccn=79301667|oclc=656950}}
- {{cite book |title=Looking for holes in the ceiling : poems |url=https://archive.org/details/lookingforholesi00dunn |url-access=registration |location=Amherst, Mass. |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |year=1974|isbn=9780870231544}}
- Full of Lust and Good Usage, Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1976. {{ISBN|9780915604074}}
- A Circus of Needs, Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1978. {{ISBN|9780915604500}}
- Work and Love, Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1981. {{ISBN|9780915604609}}
- Not Dancing, Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1984. {{ISBN|9780887480003}}
- Local Time, Quill/Morrow (New York, NY), 1986. {{ISBN|9780688062965}}
- Between Angels: Poems, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1989. {{ISBN|9780393026917}}
- Landscape at the End of the Century: Poems, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1991. {{ISBN|9780393029727}}
- New and Selected Poems: 1974-1994, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1994. {{ISBN|9780393313000}}
- Loosestrife: Poems, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1996. {{ISBN|9780393316834}}
- Riffs & Reciprocities: Prose Pairs, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 1998. {{ISBN|9780393319576}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=y0jO9oAlogoC&q=stephen+dunn Different Hours], W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2000. {{ISBN|9780393322323}}
- The Insistence of Beauty: Poems, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2004. {{ISBN|9780393059557}}
- Local Visitations: Poems, Norton, 2004, {{ISBN|9780393326031}}
- Everything Else in the World, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2006. {{ISBN|9780393330380}}
- What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009, W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 2009. {{ISBN|9780393338553}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=e_jizn83GAIC&q=stephen+dunn Here and Now: Poems], W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2011. {{ISBN|9780393080216}}
- Lines of Defense, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2014. {{ISBN|9780393240818}}
- Whereas: Poems, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2017. {{ISBN|978-0393254679}}
- Pagan Virtues: Poems, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2019. ISBN 978-1324002314
- The Not Yet Fallen World: New and Selected Poems. W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2022. ISBN 978-0-393-88225-4.
==Selected list of poems==
| class='wikitable sortable' width='90%' |
| width=25%|Title
!Year !First published !Reprinted/collected !Ref |
|---|
| Ambush at five o'clock
|2014 |{{cite journal |date=February 3, 2014 |title=Ambush at five o'clock |journal=The New Yorker |volume=89 |issue=47 |pages=50–51 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/03/ambush-at-five-oclock }} | |{{n/a}} |
| Salvation
|2005 |{{cite journal |date=November 1, 2005 |title=Salvation |journal =Poetry |url= https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/46489/salvation-56d22663695fe }} | |{{n/a}} |
| Whereas the animal I cannot help but be
|2015 |{{cite journal |date=February 9, 2015 |title=Whereas the animal I cannot help but be |journal=The New Yorker |volume=90 |issue=47 |pages=33 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/whereas-animal-help }} | |{{n/a}} |
| Charlotte Bronte in Leeds Point
|2003 | | |
| The Routine Things Around the House
|2006 | | |
| The Kiss
|2007 | | |
| Here and Now
|2011 | | |
| Mrs. Cavendish and the Dancer
|2014 | | |
| Glimpses
|2018 | | |
=Non fiction=
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=Uuf2qHJpq2AC&dq=stephen+dunn&pg=PP1 Walking Light: Memoirs and Essays on Poetry], BOA Editions, Ltd., 2001. {{ISBN|9781929918003}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=HkzTvwEACAAJ&dq=stephen+dunn&pg=PP1 Degrees of Fidelity: Essays on Poetry and the Latitudes of the Personal], Tiger Bark Press, 2018. {{ISBN|9781732901209}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commons category}}
- [http://www.cortlandreview.com/features/00/03/index.html Interview with Stephen Dunn for The Cortland Review.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725090808/http://www.cortlandreview.com/features/00/03/index.html |date=July 25, 2020 }}
- [http://www.commonlinejournal.com/2009/09/commonline-interview-pulitzer-prize.html Author Interview in The Commonline Journal, #011]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070310161824/http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/11/stephen_dunn_on_why_he_writes/ Author interview for Guernica Magazine (Guernicamag.com)]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20040604194825/http://www2.stockton.edu/sdunn/ Article on Dunn winning the 2001 Pulitzer Prize]
- [http://www.commonlinejournal.com/2009/07/poetry-by-stephen-dunn.html "The Lost Thing" - a poem by Stephen Dunn]
- [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/386 Stephen Dunn biography]
- Audio: [http://poemsoutloud.net/audio/archive/stephen_dunn_reads_talk_to_god/ Stephen Dunn reads "Talk to God"] from the book What Goes On (via [http://poemsoutloud.net/ poemsoutloud.net])
{{PulitzerPrize PoetryAuthors 2001–2025}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Stephen}}
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in Maryland
Category:Hofstra University alumni
Category:People from Frostburg, Maryland
Category:People from Atlantic County, New Jersey
Category:Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners
Category:Stockton University faculty
Category:Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:University of Michigan faculty
Category:People from Ocean City, New Jersey
Category:The New Yorker people