Mark Strand (born 11 April 1934) is an American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990.^[1] Since 2005-06, he has been a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

Biography[link]

Strand was born on Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada. His early years were spent in North America, while much of his teenage years were spent in South and Central America. In 1957, he earned his B.A. from Antioch College in Ohio. Strand then studied painting under Josef Albers at Yale University where he earned a B.F.A in 1959. On a Fulbright Scholarship, Strand studied nineteenth-century Italian poetry in Italy during 1960–1961.

He attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa the following year and earned a Master of Arts in 1962. In 1965 he spent a year in Brazil as a Fulbright Lecturer.^[2] His academic career has taken him to numerous colleges and universities to teach. A partial list:

Teaching positions

• University of Iowa, Iowa City, instructor in English, 1962–1965
• University of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Fulbright lecturer, 1965–1966
• Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, assistant professor, 1967
• Columbia University, New York City, adjunct associate professor, 1969–1972
• Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, New York City, associate professor, 1970–1972
• Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, Bain-Swiggett Lecturer, 1973
• Brandeis University, Hurst professor of poetry, 1974–1975
• University of Utah, Salt Lake City, professor of English, 1981–1993
• Johns Hopkins University, Elliot Coleman Professor of Poetry, 1994–c. 1998
• University of Chicago, Committee on Social Thought, 1998-c. 2005
• Columbia University, New York City, professor of English and Comparative Literature, c. 2005—

Visiting professor at

• University of Washington, 1968, 1970
• Columbia University, 1980
• Yale University, 1969–1970
• University of Virginia, 1976, 1978
• California State University at Fresno, 1977
• University of California at Irvine, 1979
• Wesleyan University, 1979
• Harvard University, 1980

In 1997, he left Johns Hopkins University to accept the Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professorship of Social Thought at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Since 2005-06, Strand has been teaching literature and creative writing at Columbia University, in New York City.

In 1981, Strand was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress during the 1990–1991 term. Strand has received numerous awards including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1987 and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1999 for Blizzard of One.

Poetry[link]

Many of Strand's poems are nostalgiac in tone, evoking the bays, fields, boats, and pines of his childhood on Prince Edward Island. Strand has been compared to Robert Bly in his use of surrealism, though he attributes the surreal elements in his poems to an admiration of the works of Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, and Rene Magritte.^[3] Strand's poems use plain and concrete language, usually without rhyme or meter. In a 1971 interview, Strand said, "I feel very much a part of a new international style that has a lot to do with plainness of diction, a certain reliance on surrealist techniques, and a strong narrative element."^[4]

Awards[link]

• 1960–1961: Fulbright Fellowship
• 1979: Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets
• 1987: MacArthur Fellowship
• 1990–1991: Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
• 1992: Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry
• 1993: Bollingen Prize
• 1999: Pulitzer Prize, for Blizzard of One
• 2004: Wallace Stevens Award
• 2009: Gold Medal in Poetry, from the American Academy of Arts and Letters^[5]

Bibliography[link]

Sources[link]

• Perkins, George and Barbara Perkins, Ed. (1988) Contemporary American Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill

References[link]

1. ^ "Poet Laureate Timeline: 1981-1990". Library of Congress. 2008. http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-1981-1990.html. Retrieved 2009-01-01. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae} Web page titled Mark Strand (1934 - ) "Mark Strand (1934 - )" at the Poetry Foundation website, retrieved July 12, 2009
3. ^ Perkins, George and Barbara Perkins, Ed. Contemporary American Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988, p. 953.
4. ^ Perkins, p. 953
5. ^ http://www.artsandletters.org/press_releases/2009members.php
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Web page titled "Mark Strand" at the website of the Academy of American Poets, retrieved July 12, 2009
7. ^ ^{a b c} Web page titled "Mark Strand, UI Graduate 62MA (Former UI Faculty)", at the Pulitzer Prize Winners With UI Ties website, retrieved July 12, 2009

External links[link]

• Wallace Shawn (Fall 1998). "Mark Strand, The Art of Poetry No. 77". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1070/the-art-of-poetry-no-77-mark-strand. 
• Mark Strand reading at the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar (audio / 33:53)
• Footage of Strand reading poems at the Erotikon Symposium, University of Chicago
• "Poetry in the World," essay by Mark Strand
• Profile and poems of Mark Strand, including audio files, at the Poetry Foundation.
• Modern American Poetry Web site biographical page on Mark Strand
• Strand's Academy Of American Poets page
• Mark Strand reading and interview on Weekend America
• Ernest Hilbert Interview with Mark Strand for Random House on the Publication of Blizzard of One and The Weather of Words
• Watch Mark Strand read poems and give writing advice at Open-Door Poetry
• 'Mark Strand's Words and Weather', review of New Selected Poems in the Oxonian Review