Amy Clampitt (June 15, 1920 – September 10, 1994) was an

American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...

and author.

Life

Clampitt was born on June 15, 1920, of

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

parents, and brought up in New Providence, Iowa. At nearby

Grinnell College Grinnell College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalis ...

and later in the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

she began a study of

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

that eventually led her to poetry. Clampitt graduated from Grinnell College, and from that time on lived mainly in New York City. To support herself, she worked as a secretary at the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, a reference librarian at the Audubon Society, and a freelance editor. Not until the mid-1960s, when Clampitt was in her forties, did she return to writing poetry. Her first poem was published by ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' in 1978. In 1983, at the age of sixty-three, Clampitt published her first full-length collection, ''The Kingfisher''. In the decade that followed, Clampitt published five books of poetry, including ''What the Light Was Like'' (1985), ''Archaic Figure'' (1987), and ''Westward'' (1990). Her last book, ''A Silence Opens'', appeared in 1994. Clampitt also published a book of essays and several privately printed editions of her longer poems. She taught at the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest instit ...

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

, and

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

, but it was her time spent in Manhattan, in a remote part of Maine, and on various trips to Europe, the former Soviet Union, Iowa, Wales, and England that most directly influenced her work. Clampitt died of cancer in September 1994. An Amy Clampitt Residency was established in

Lenox, Massachusetts Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 2020 United States census ...

at Clampitt’s former home.

Awards

Clampitt was the recipient of a 198
Guggenheim Fellowship
a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

(1992), and she was a member of the

and the American Academy of Poets.

Works

Poetry collections

* ''Multitudes, Multitudes'' (Washington Street Press, 1973). * ''The Isthmus'' (1981). * ''The Summer Solstice'' (Sarabande Press, 1983). * ''The Kingfisher'' (Knopf, 1983). . * ''What the Light Was Like'' (Knopf, 1983). . * ''Archaic Figure'' (Knopf, 1987). . * ''Westward'' (Knopf, 1990). . * ''Manhattan: An Elegy, and Other Poems'' (University of Iowa Center for the Book, 1990). * ''A Silence Opens'' (Knopf, 1994). . * '' The Collected Poems of Amy Clampitt'' (Knopf, 1997). . * " A Homage to John Keats" (The Sarabande Press, 1984)

Prose

* ''A Homage to John Keats'' (Sarabande Press, 1984). * ''The Essential Donne'' (Ecco Press, 1988). . * ''Predecessors, Et Cetera: Essays'' (University of Michigan Press, 1991). .

Biography

* Willard Spiegelman, ''Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt'', Knopf, 2023.

References

External links

The Amy Clampitt FundClampitt's Academy of American Poets page"Clampitt, Amy: Introduction"
''Poetry Criticism.'' Vol. 19, edited by Carol T. Gaffke (Thomson Gale, 1997). * * Catherine Cucinella, ed.
Contemporary American Women Poets: An A-Z guide

Collection on Amy Clampitt, 1938-1998
SMU
Amy Clampitt's Papers
are housed at University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections & Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Clampitt, Amy 1920 births 1994 deaths 20th-century American poets American women poets Amherst College faculty College of William & Mary faculty Grinnell College alumni MacArthur Fellows Smith College faculty 20th-century American women writers Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters