Allen Turner Cassity (January 12, 1929 in
Jackson, Mississippi – July 26, 2009 in
Atlanta) was an American
poet,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
, and
short story writer.
Life
He was the son of Dorothy and Allen Cassity, and grew up in Jackson and
Forest, Mississippi. He graduated from
Millsaps College and
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
with a master's degree.
Cassity was
drafted into the United States Army and stationed in
Puerto Rico from 1952 to 1954.
[ He attended Columbia University on the GI Bill. He worked at the ]Robert W. Woodruff Library
Emory Libraries is the collective group of academic libraries at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The libraries include the Robert W. Woodruff Library, Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Goizueta Business Library, Hugh F. MacMil ...
at Emory University, from 1962 to 1991, and also taught poetry there.
He is buried in Forest, Mississippi.
Awards
* Georgia Author of the Year Award from the Georgia Writers Association.
* Levinson Prize for Poetry, for ''Devils and Islands''
* Michael Braude Award of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters
*
Ingram Merrill Foundation Award
*
National Endowment for the Arts Grant
Works
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Verse plays
* ''Silver Out of Shanghai'' (1973)
* ''The Book of Alna'' (1985)
Anthologies
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Criticism
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''Ploughshares''
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References
External links
"Turner Cassity Tribute (Guest Features Editor - Suzanne J. Doyle)", ''Able Muse'', December, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassity, Turner
1929 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers
American male poets
Millsaps College alumni
Stanford University alumni
Columbia University School of Library Service alumni
Writers from Jackson, Mississippi
People from Forest, Mississippi
United States Army soldiers