Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet. He shared the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in 1983 for ''Country Music: Selected Early Poems'' and won the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

in 1998 for ''Black Zodiac''. From 2014 to 2015, he served as the 20th

Poet Laureate of the United States The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national cons ...

Early life and education

Wright was born in

Pickwick Dam, Tennessee Pickwick Dam (also known as Pickwick Village) is an unincorporated community in Hardin County, Tennessee, United States. Pickwick Dam is located on the Tennessee River south of the Pickwick Landing Dam. Pickwick Dam has a post office with ZIP ...

. Wright attended

Christ School (North Carolina) Christ School is a private college preparatory boarding and day school for boys in Arden, North Carolina, a suburb of Asheville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. While affiliated with the Episcopal school, it is open to students of all faiths and bac ...

in Asheville for his junior and senior years where he helped coach football, served as vice president of his class, and became a member of the honors program. While at Christ School, he enveloped himself in the literature that would inspire him to write. By the time he graduated in 1953 he had read everything

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

had written. He then matriculated at

Davidson College Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan� ...

and graduated with a BA in history in 1957. He received a master's degree from the University of Iowa in 1963, and attended the

University of Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...

. He was a

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

and at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from ...

Teaching career

From 1966 to 1983, he taught at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

. Fellow Colleagues poets Robert Peters and

James L. McMichael James L. McMichael (born 1939) is an American poet and educator. Life The Pasadena, California native, McMichael received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. In 1970, following the breakup of his first marriage, he married his second wife, Phylin ...

and novelist Oakley Hall shared during this time directorship of the university's well-known Master of Fine Arts program. He went to the University of Virginia in 1983, where he stayed until he retired in 2010. He was a chancellor of the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

and Souder Family Professor of English at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen ...

Poet

Wright began writing poetry while stationed in Italy during his army service, from 1957 to 1961, in the United States Army Intelligence Corps in Verona. On June 12, 2014, the Library of Congress announced that Wright would serve as

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

of the United States beginning on September 25, 2014. He retired from the position in May 2015.

Works

Beside the award-winning books ''Country Music'' (1982) and ''Black Zodiac'' (1997), Wright has published ''Chickamauga'', ''Buffalo Yoga'', ''Negative Blue'', ''Appalachia'', ''The World of the Ten Thousand Things: Poems 1980-1990'', ''Zone Journals'' and ''Hard Freight''. His work also appears in ''Blackbird'', an online journal of literature and the arts. Wright has published two works of criticism, ''Halflife'' and ''Quarter Notes''.

Recognition

His translation of

Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale (; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature. Life and works Early years Montale was born in Genoa. His family were che ...

's ''The Storm and Other Poems'' won him the

PEN Translation Prize The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been p ...

in 1979. In 1993, he received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for his lifetime achievement. In 1996 he won the

Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

from the Academy of American Poets for the collection ''Chickamauga'' (1995). ''Black Zodiac'' (1997) won him the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

Bibliography

*''Oblivion Banjo: The Poetry of Charles Wright'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. *''Caribou'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. *''Bye-and-Bye: Selected Late Poems'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012. — winner of the 2013

Bollingen Prize The Bollingen Prize for Poetry is a literary honor bestowed on an American poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.

*''Outtakes'' Sarabande, 2010. *''Sestets'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009. *''Littlefoot'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 200

*''Scar Tissue'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006. — winner of the 2007 International

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, the awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English languag ...

*''The Wrong End of the Rainbow'' Sarabande, 2005. *''Buffalo Yoga'' Farrar, Straux & Giroux, 2004. *''A Short History of the Shadow'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002. *''Negative Blue'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000. *''North American Bear'' Sutton Hoo, 1999. *''Appalachia'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998. *''Black Zodiac'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997. —winner of the 1998

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

"Poetry"
''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-04-07. *''Chickamauga'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995. —finalist, 1996

*''Quarter Notes'' (improvisations and interviews) U of Michigan Press, 1995. *''The World of the Ten Thousand Things''. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990. *''Xionia'' Windhover Press, 1990. *''Zone Journals'' Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1988. *''Halflife (improvisations and interviews)'' U of Michigan Press, 1988. *''The Other Side of the River. Random House'' 1984. —finalist, 1985

*''Orphic Songs. Dino Campana (translations)'' Field Editions, 1984. *''Country Music: Selected Early Poems'' (

Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present form ...

, 1982) —shared the National Book Award for Poetry with

Galway Kinnell Galway Mills Kinnell (February 1, 1927 – October 28, 2014) was an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1982 collection, ''Selected Poems'' and split the National Book Award for Poetry with Charles Wright. From 1989 to 1 ...

, ''Selected Poems'';"National Book Awards – 1983"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
(With essay by Eric Smith from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) finalist, 1983

*''The Southern Cross'' Random House, 1981. —finalist, 1982

*''The Storm and Other Things Eugenio Montale (translations)'' Field Editions, 1978. *''China Trace'' Wesleyan University Press, 1977. *''Bloodlines'' Wesleyan University Press, 1975. *''Hard Freight'' Wesleyan University Press, 1973. *''The Venice Notebook'' Barn Dream Press, 1971. *''The Grave of the Right Hand''

, 1970. *''The Dream Animal'' House of Anansi Press, 1968.

References

External links

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Charles Wright Collection, 1975-2001.

External links

Charles Wright: Online Resources from the Library of CongressProfile at Poetry Foundation
*
Charles Wright's papers
reside at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Charles 1935 births American Poets Laureate Living people Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters American male poets Christ School (North Carolina) alumni National Book Award winners Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners University of Virginia faculty Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Bollingen Prize recipients People from Hardin County, Tennessee Poets from Tennessee Writers of American Southern literature Fulbright alumni

Early life and education

Teaching career

Poet

Works

Recognition

Bibliography

Further reading

References

External links

External links