Michael Robert Collier (born 1953) is an American poet, teacher, creative writing program administrator and editor. He has published five books of original poetry, a translation of Euripides' ''

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...

'', a book of prose pieces about poetry, and has edited three anthologies of poetry. From 2001 to 2004 he was the

Poet Laureate of Maryland This is a list of Poets Laureate of Maryland. Position and history The Poet Laureate of Maryland is an honorary State position. The selected poet serves at the discretion of the Governor for up to a four-year term, renewable by the Governo ...

. As of 2011, he is the director of the

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most ...

, a professor of creative writing at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

and the poetry editorial consultant for

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

(now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

Life

Collier was born in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

and graduated from

Brophy College Preparatory Brophy College Preparatory is a Jesuit high school in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The school has an all-male enrollment of approximately 1,400 students. It is operated independently of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. The school has ...

in 1971. He attended the Santa Clara University for one year, then transferred to

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...

in 1973 to study with the Pulitzer prize-winning poet

William Morris Meredith, Jr. William Morris Meredith Jr. (January 9, 1919 – May 30, 2007) was an American poet and educator. He was Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1978 to 1980. Biography Early years Meredith was born in New York Cit ...

In 1977, he moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on a Thomas Watson fellowship and worked with editor William Cookson on the British literary magazine ''Agenda''. After graduating cum laude from Connecticut College in 1976, and receiving his M.F.A. in creative writing from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in 1979, he was a writing fellow at the

Fine Arts Work Center The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise devoted to encouraging the growth and development of emerging visual artists and writers through residency programs, to the propagation of aesthetic values and experience, and to the restoratio ...

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...

, from 1979 to 1980. He moved to the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, area in 1981, where he began teaching part-time at George Mason University,

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

and the

. From 1983 to 1984, he was the coordinator of public relations and the poetry program at the

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materi ...

. In 1984, he was appointed full-time to the English faculty at the University of Maryland. In the summer of 1981, he attended the

for the first time as the Margaret Bridgman Scholar in Poetry, followed by stints as a fellow in 1986, and as associate faculty in 1992 and 1993. In 1994, the trustees of Middlebury College appointed him Director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Founded in 1926, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is the longest-running writers' conference in the United States. In 2002, Houghton-Mifflin Publishers appointed Collier as its editorial consultant for poetry. He has edited books by the American poets Michael Ryan, Spencer Reece, and Alan Shapiro and the British poet

Glyn Maxwell Glyn Maxwell (born 1962) is a British poet, playwright, novelist, librettist, and lecturer. Early life Of primarily Welsh heritage — his mother Buddug-Mair Powell (b. 1928) acted in the original stage show of Dylan Thomas's ''Under Milk Wood'' ...

, as well as the books ''Native Guard'' by

Natasha Trethewey Natasha Trethewey (born April 26, 1966) is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and again in 2013. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection ''Native Guard'', and she is a former Poet L ...

which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize and ''Space Walk'' by

Tom Sleigh Tom Sleigh () is an American poet, dramatist, essayist and academic, who lives in New York City. He has published nine books of original poetry, one full-length translation of Euripides' '' Herakles'' and two books of essays. His most recent books ...

, which won the 2008 $100,000 Kingsley Tufts award from Claremont Graduate University. From 2001 to 2004, Collier served as the Maryland state poet laureate. He is married and has two sons.

Work and artistic influences

Collier's poems often reveal a fascination with objects and their significance. In a 2005 interview, Collier stated that he has "always been drawn to more formal poets like Robert Frost" and continued by saying that other "early influences included

Anthony Hecht Anthony Evan Hecht (January 16, 1923 – October 20, 2004) was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the World War II, Second World War, in which ...

and early Robert Lowell…and

W.H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...

." He added "I strongly identify with

, Thomas Hardy,

Randall Jarrell Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poe ...

, and

George Herbert George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devoti ...

.""An Interview with Matt Barry," ''Grove Review'', On Poetry Interview Series, Fall 2005.

Bibliography

Poetry

;Collections *''Dark Wild Realm'', Houghton Mifflin, 2006. (Paperback edition, Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin, October 2007 ) *''The Ledge'', Houghton Mifflin, 2000. (Paperback edition, Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin, April 2002 ) *''The Neighbor'', University of Chicago Press, 1995; 2nd printing 1996; 3rd printing, 1999. *''The Folded Heart'', Wesleyan University Press, 1989. *''The Clasp and Other Poems'', Wesleyan University Press, 1986 (Second printing, 1987). *''My Bishop and Other Poems'', University of Chicago Press, 2018 ;Anthologies (edited) *''The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology'', ed. Michael Collier, University Press of New England, 2000. *''The New Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry'', eds. Michael Collier and Stanley Plumly, University Press of New England, 1999; second printing, 2000. *''The Wesleyan Tradition: Four Decades of American Poetry'', Wesleyan University Press, 1993 (Second printing, 1995). ;List of poems

Prose and translation

*''A William Maxwell Portrait: Appreciations and Memories'', edited with Charles Baxter and

Edward Hirsch Edward M. Hirsch (born January 20, 1950) is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry. He has published nine books of poems, including ''The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems'' (2010), which brings toget ...

, W.W. Norton, Inc. (W.W. Norton, 2004). *''Medea'', translated by Michael Collier. Introduction and notes by Georgia Machemer. Oxford University Press, 2006. *''Make Us Wave Back: Essays on Poetry and Influence'', University of Michigan Press, 2007.

Awards

*Finalist,

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...

Award in Poetry, 2001 for ''The Ledge''. *Finalist,

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

Book Prize for Poetry, 2001 for ''The Ledge''. * John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1995 *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Creative Writing Fellowship, 1994 and 1984. *National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 1984. *"Discovery"

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

Award, 1981. *Margaret Bridgman Scholar in Poetry, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1981. *Writing Fellow, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, 1979–80. *Thomas Watson Traveling Fellowship, 1976

References

External links

"A Weekly Poem, Read By the Author"
Collier, Michael. "The Lift." ''Slate''. April 1, 2003.
"A Weekly Poem, Read By the Author"
Collier, Michael. "Shelley's Guitar." ''Slate'', May 20, 2003.
"A Weekly Poem, Read by The Author"
Collier, Michael. "Brave Sparrow." ''Slate''. October 2, 1997.
"A Weekly Poem, Read by The Author"
Collier, Michael. "The Swimmer." ''Slate''. August 13, 1998.
"A Conversation with Michael Collier [audiorecording]"
''Blackbird Archive: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts''. Fall 2007, Vol. 6, no. 2.
"Interview with Michael Collier, poet and director of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference"
''write the book'' #19, michael collier/bread loaf (8/9/08) {{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Michael 1953 births Living people 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets American male poets The Atlantic (magazine) people Connecticut College alumni National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Poets Laureate of Maryland Poets from Arizona Poets from Maryland University of Maryland, College Park faculty Writers from Phoenix, Arizona 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers