Robert Dana (June 2, 1929 - February 6, 2010) was an American poet, who taught English literature and writing at Cornell College and many other schools, revived The North American Review and served as editor during 1964-1968, and was a poet poet for the State of Iowa from 2004 to 2008.
Video Robert Dana
Biography
Robert Patrick Dana was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1929. At the age of seven he became an orphan, and was removed and moved to the western part of the state where he grew up as a foster child at James Kearney's James Francis ("Pop") home in Haydenville, Massachusetts. He served in the South Pacific towards the end of World War II as a US Navy radio operator, and during the break in the action, he found that he liked to write poetry. After being dismissed with respect in 1948, he spent a year at Holyoke Junior College at GI Bill, then sold his raincoat and watched to buy a one-way bus ticket to Des Moines, Iowa. There he studied at Drake University, studying with poet E. L. Mayo, while supporting himself by working as a sports writer for the Des Moines Register.
After graduating, he moved to northwestern Iowa where he taught school for a year in George, Iowa. He then moved to the other side of the country, studying with Robert Lowell and John Berryman at the University of Iowa and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he joined a group of famous writers including Donald Justice, Henri Coulette, Jane Cooper, and Philip Levine. He received his master's degree in 1954, and at the age of 25 was soon employed by Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa; he remains the youngest person ever employed for a staff-position tracking position there. He taught English writing and literature at Cornell from 1954 to 1994, and eventually became Professor of English and Poet.
In 1964, Dana was responsible for the return of the publication The North American Review . This necessitated negotiations with Claiborne Pell, who was a US Senator from Rhode Island at the time and stated that he had the right to publish the magazine. Upon successful completion of the arrangement, Dana served as a NAR editor until 1968. Ron Sandvik, a NAR managing editor, characterized Dana's role in saving him from oblivion as a "great gift", saying "there are many people who owe him."
Dana also holds teaching assignments at a number of other schools, including the University of Florida, Wayne State University, Idaho University, Wichita State University, Stockholm University, and Beijing University.
Dana published more than a dozen her poetry collections, wrote two prose books and edited the third. In addition, Essay's poems, essays, and critical reviews have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The New Yorker, The New York Times , < i> Christian Science Monitor , Poems , The American Poetry Review The Iowa Review and Sewanee Review >
Poetry Fund won a number of awards. His poetry collection Started for a Difficult World was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. In 1989, he was a recipient of the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award for Poetry, given by New York University to an "unrecognized poet". He received Carl Sandburg Medal for Poetry in 1994, Pushcart Prize in 1996, and Rainer Maria Rilke Prize for Poetry. He was also the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (1985 and 1993). In September 2004, Robert Dana was awarded the Nobel laureate for the State of Iowa, serving until 2008.
Fellow poet Marvin Bell said that Dana "lived his life and worked without getting caught up in the little rivalry of the poetry world".
M.L. Rosenthal, a prominent critic and poet champion, feels that Dana is a "rich lyrical poet" who is "very hard on himself and on the Karma of our world, whose work the whole country will recognize itself, if ever begins to open a book of poetry."
Dana married twice, the first time for 22 years to Mary (Kowalke) Dana (later, Ware); second time for 35 years to Peg (Sellen) Dana. She has three children from her first marriage: Lori Dana, Arden Dana, and Richard Dana. He answered an editing question about his upcoming book Paris on the Flats a day before he died of pancreatic cancer at Mercy Hospice in Iowa City at the age of 80.
Maps Robert Dana
Bibliography
Poetry
- My Glass Brother and Other Poems (Constance Press/Stonewall Press, 1957)
- Dark Waking Flag (Qara Press, 1964)
- Skin Trip (The Hundred Pound Press, 1966)
- Multiple Silent Versions (W. W. Norton & Company, 1967)
- Visible Strength (The Swallow Press, 1971)
- In the Runaway Season: Order of Poetry (Ohio University Press 1980)
- What the Stones know (Seamark Press, 1982)
- Blood Harvest (Windhover Press, 1986)
- Starting for a Difficult World (Harper & Row, 1987)
- What I Think I Know: New Poems and Choices (Another Chicago Press, 1991)
- Yes, Everything (Another Chicago Press, 1994)
- Hello, Strangers: Beach Poetry (Anhinga Press, 1996)
- Summer (Anhinga Press, 2000)
- Red Morning Admirals (Anhinga Press, 2004)
- Everything (Anhinga Press, 2008)
- New & amp; Selected Poems 1955 to 2010 (Anhinga Press, 2010 - posthumous)
Prosa
- Against Wheat: An Interview with Maverick American Publishers (University of Iowa Press, 1986 and 2009)
- Author Community: Paul Engle and Author Iowa Writers editor (University of Iowa Press, 1999)
- Paris in Flats: Literary Version of Life (University of Tampa Press, 2010 - posthumous)
References
External links
- Links to poems
- Poems by Robert Dana, poems by Robert Dana include "Heat", "A Short History of the Middle West", and "Beach Attitudes" in The Writer's Almanac Garrison Keillor
- "Rapture", a poem by Robert Dana including the poem "Rapture" on Anhinga Press.
- Poetry by Former Poet Poet, Robert Dana, including "This Time" and "Red Morning Admirals" at the University of Speakers of the Iowa Bureau.
- "After the Storm", a poem by Robert Dana, at Poetry Daily .
- "Mending Art", a poem by Robert Dana, at Pif Magazine .
- Interviews, reviews, readings
- Robert Dana Interviewed by Derek Alger, in Pif Magazine.
- Better to Go in Rags: Interview with Robert Dana, by Sara Pennington in Chattahoochee Review.
- The Other Review, The Review: The Poetry by Robert Dana, reviewed by Richard Holinger.
- From Deep Space: Robert Dana's Poem, by Edward Brunner at The Iowa Review.
- An Evening with Robert Dana on YouTube.
- Robert Dana Reading, Live From Prairie Lights, October 18, 2009, at the Iowa Digital Library.
- Prose, introduction, other links
- "One More Shoppers" by Robert Dana, describing Dana's friendship with fellow poet Stephen Spender.
- Iowa Poet Robert Dana Died February 6, 2010, by Denise Low, former Poet of the Kansas Poets.
- Thing One and Thing Two, Robert Dana as a Teacher by Stephen Corey, part of the Fund's celebrations at the Writers' Association 2007 & amp; Conference Writing Program.
- Two poems by Robert Dana for use in the devotion ceremony of two Iowa events reported by Cornell College.
- Robert Dana Links, a compilation link about Robert Dana by Cornell College
- The Robert Dana Papers are stored in the University & amp; amp; University Archive.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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