Bonnie Costello (born 1950) is an American literary scholar, currently the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of English at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

. Her books include works on the poets

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American Modernism, modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968 Nobel Prize in Li ...

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...

, and

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

, and the relation of visual art to poetry through

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

and

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

Books

Costello's books include: *''Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions'' (Harvard University Press, 1981) *''Elizabeth Bishop: Questions of Mastery'' (Harvard University Press, 1991) *''Shifting Ground: Reinventing Landscape in Modern American Poetry'' (Harvard University Press, 2003) *''Planets on Tables: Poetry, Still Life and the Turning World'' (Cornell University Press, 2008) *''The Plural of Us: Poetry and Community in Auden and Others'' (Princeton University Press, 2017) With Celeste Goodridge and

Cristanne Miller Cristanne Miller (born 1953) received her PhD in 1980 from the University of Chicago, and was for many years the W.M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor at Pomona College. Since 2006 she has taught at the University at Buffalo in New York, where ...

she edited ''The Selected Letters of Marianne Moore'' (Knopf, 1997), which ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' listed as one of the notable books of 1997.

Education and career

Costello is a 1972 graduate of

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont, United States. Founded as a women’s college in 1932,

. Her doctorate is from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, in 1977. She joined the Boston University faculty in 1977, and became Warren Distinguished Professor in 2017.

Recognition

Costello was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 2002. She also became a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

in 1990, and a fellow of the

American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...

in 2011. Her book ''The Plural of Us: Poetry and Community in Auden and Others'' won the Warren–Brooks Award for 2017.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Costello, Bonnie 1950 births Living people American academics of English literature Bennington College alumni Cornell University alumni Boston University faculty Fellows of the American Council of Learned Societies Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences