UK Poet Stephen Sandy 1934

"The record: I was born in Minneapolis at Abbott Hospital near Loring Park on August 2, 1934....After a brief stint on active duty in the navy, I entered Yale College in the fall of 1951. I joined the NROTC; I left it by transferring to the AFROTC; I had grown passionate about my education and soon dropped AFROTC as well.

"I graduated with a B.A. in English in June 1955 and was drafted by the army on September 12, 1955....

"I studied German at Harvard Summer School and in September 1957 entered the Harvard Graduate School in English, earning an M.A. in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1963. While a graduate student, I attended Robert Lowell's poetry workshop at Boston University; later I worked with Archibald MacLeish....In 1963 I joined the faculty as a full-time instructor in English. In 1967 I went to Japan as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Tokyo and returned a year later to a position on the English faculty of Brown University. Before going to Tokyo I had met Virginia Scoville in Cambridge. In 1969 we were married and we moved to Bennington, Vermont, where I would teach at Bennington College. A daughter, Clare, was born in 1976 when we lived in White Creek, New York, and a son, Nathaniel, in 1980.

"The days of learning as a pupil became days of learning as a teacher. It was my privilege to be part of that clan: colleague and thus—at Bennington—friend of many.

"In a long perspective, the situation does not matter, the telos only does, and that is the enduring trade. Think of a man in his study, surrounded by books, looking at them—like a cat with unfocused stare crouched under a peony bush—wondering whatever had they meant to him, things he once read, loved ones, loved things and days, and what he had been about. At the bottom of the garden of years, what is time? What matters but a few facts and loved ones held; or a mind, on the long frayed track of memory, running in the dark?"

Books

• Weathers Permitting, Baton Rouge & London: Louisiana State Univ. Press, April, 2005.
• Surface Impressions. Baton Rouge & London: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 2002.
• Black Box. Baton Rouge & London: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. (Cloth & Paper)
• The Thread, New and Selected Poems. Baton Rouge & London: Louisiana State University Press, 1998. (Cloth & Paper)
• Thanksgiving Over the Water. New York: Alfred A.Knopf, l992; paper, 1994
• Man in the Open Air. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, l988
• Riding to Greylock. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, l983
• The Raveling of the Novel, Studies in Romantic Fiction from Walpole to Scott. New York: Arno Press, l980
• Roofs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., l97l
• Stresses in the Peaceable Kingdom. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., l967

Chapbooks

• Marrow Spoon. North Bennington: Garlic Mouth Press, 1997.
• Vale of Academe, A Prose Poem for Bernard Malamud. Spartanburg: Holocene Press, 1996.
• The Epoch. North Bennington, Vt: Plinth Press, 1990.
• To A Mantis. North Hoosick, N.Y.: Plinth Press, 1987.
• Flight of Steps. Binghamton: Bellevue Press, 1982.
• End of the Picaro. Pawlet, Vt: Banyan Press, 1974.

Fellowships, Awards, Appointments, etc.

• Phi Beta Kappa Poet, Yale University, 2003
• Residency, Bellagio Study and Conference Center, Rockefeller Foundation, 2001
• Final Judge, The Hopwood Awards, University of Michigan, 1999
• Senior Fellow in Literature, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, 1998
• Wallace Stevens Award Jury, Academy of American Poets, 1998
• Howard Moss Residency for Poetry, Yaddo, 1998
• Reader’s Digest Residency for Distinguished Writers, Yaddo, 1997
• Chubb LifeAmerica Fellow, The MacDowell Colony, 1993
• U.S. Department of Education, Jacob J. Javits Fellows Program, Humanities Review panel, l99l; Arts Review panel, 1992, 1997
• National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, l988
• Vermont Council on the Arts Fellowship, l988
• Ingram Merrill Foundation Fellowship, l985
• NEA Poet in Residence, Y Poetry Center, Philadelphia, l985
• Councilor for English, Harvard Graduate Society for Advanced Study and Research, l969-74
• Phi Beta Kappa Poet, Brown University, l969
• Fulbright Visiting Lectureship, Japan, l967-68

Education

• Ph.D. Harvard University, l963
  M.A. Harvard University, l959
  B.A. Yale University, l955

Selected publications (poetry)

Atlantic Monthly, APR, Bad Henry Review, Can We Have Our Ball Back, Fence, Grand Street, Harpers, Kenyon Review. The Nation, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New Republic, Michigan Quarterly Review, Paris Review, Partisan Review, Ploughshares, Salamander, Salmagundi, Sonnet Scroll, Southwest Review, Southern Review, Southwest Review, TLS, Transatlantic Review, Western Humanities Review, The Yale Review, sixty other journals and reviews, here and abroad.

Work included in A Controversy of Poets (Anchor Books), A Burning Deck Anthology (Burning Deck), The New Yorker Book of Poems (Morrow), The New York Times Book of Verse (Macmillan), The Enduring Beast (Doubleday), Seasonal Performances (Michigan), Poets for Life: Seventy-Six Poets Respond to AIDS (Crown, l989; Persea Books, l992); The Best American Poetry 1995, ed. R. Howard & D. Lehman, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995; The Best American Poetry 1998, ed. Hollander & Lehman: New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998; and in anthologies such as A Good Man, Fathers and Sons in Poetry and Prose (Fawcett, 1993).

Selected publications (prose)

• “Salt of the Sky: James Merrill's Poetry,” Harvard Review, # 21 (Fall, 2001), pp 69-78.
• “Stephen Sandy,” Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Gale, 1998.
• “Auden at Bennington,” W. H. Auden Society Newsletter, Fall, 1997.
• "Keeping About: A Memory of Austin Warren," Tennessee Quarterly, Vol I, No. I. (Spring, 1994), pp 49-55.
• “A Low Profile” (fiction), Confrontation . 52-53 (Spring, 1994), pp 164-8.
• “Seeing Things: The Visionary Ardor of Seamus Heaney,” Salmagundi, No. 100, (Fall, 1993), pp 207-225.
• “Jibutsu-o-miru — Sheimas Hiini-no-Genshisha-teki-Netsui,” transl. of “Seeing Things: The Visionary Ardor of Seamus Heaney” into Japanese by Tokunaga Shozo, Gandaishi Techo, Tokyo, 1994.
• “Theodore Holmes,” Poetry Society of America Newsletter, PSA: Vol. 42 (Fall, 1993), pp 41-42.
• “‘Writing As A Career: An Early Auden Lecture in the States,” The W.H. Auden Society Newsletter, No. 10-11, New York, 1993.
• “Seamus Heaney,” Introduction to Dylan the Durable? On Dylan Thomas, by Seamus Heaney, Bennington Chapbooks in Literature, Bennington: Bennington College, 1992.
• "An Enlarging Pleasure," The Day I Was Older, on the Poetry of Donald Hall, ed. Rector, Story Line Press, Santa Cruz, l989.
• "Of 'Bronze'," Verse, Vol. 5, No 2, July l988.
• "James Merrill," Dictionary of Literary Biography, Yearbook l985. ed. Ross, Detroit: Gale Research, l986, pp 292-302.

(etc.)

Translations

• Horace, “Quis Multa Gracilis.” Norton Treasury of World Poetry. Norton: New York, 1998.
• Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, a verse translation of Aeschylus. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.
• Seneca, A Cloak for Hercules, a verse translation of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, “Hercules Oetaeus,”
• Seneca, The Tragedies, Vol II, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

Music

• TIMEX: Poems of Stephen Sandy read by the poet. Music written and performed by Gokcen Ergene, Nadir Naqvi, Vuk Mitevski, and Nicole Pope. CD: Dishwasher Studio, 2001.
• Stresses in the Peaceable Kingdom: The Choral Music of Richard Wilson. William Appling Singers and Orchestra, William Appling conducting. CD: Albany Records, #Troy 333, 1999.
• Heartbeats: New Songs from Minnesota for the AIDS Quilt Songbook. No. 10, “The Second Law.” Tony Holt, Baritone. John Jensen, Piano. CD: Innova, #500, 1997.
• The Second Law. Music by Richard Wilson. The Aids Quilt Songbook. New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1994
• Vita de Sancto Hieronymo: An Antiphonal Cantata. Music by Henry Brant. New York: MCA Music, 1973.

Notices of Sandy's work (poems)

• "Stephen Sandy," Shozo Tokunaga, The Rising Generation, (Vol. CXLVIII—No. 12) Tokyo, Japan: March 1, 2003, 748-749.
• "Surface Impressions, by Stephen Sandy," Peter Campion, Poetry (May, 2003),98 - 100.
• "On Stephen Sandy," Don Share, Salamander Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer, 2001). pp 28-29.
• "The Thread, New and Selected Poems," David Yezzi, Poetry, Vol. CLXXIV (June 1999) pp 171-173.
• “Poetry in Review,” Phoebe Pettingell, The Yale Review, Vol. 80, No. 4 (October 1992), 111-113.
• “The Everyday and the Transcendent,” Richard Tillinghast, Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol XXXII, No 3 (Summer, 1993), pp 485- 487.
• “In the Divide: Skeptic Master, Stung Pilgrim,” Chard deNiord, The New England Review, Middlebury Series Vol 16 No 2 (Spring, 1994), pp 159-62.
• “The Pleasures of Craft, Honesty and Intelligence,” Margo Jefferson, The New York Times, Wednesday, Nov 16, 1994, p C23.
• "Ghazal for Geldzahler," Salamander. (Vol. 9, Nos. 1 & 2. Then & Now 10th Anniversary 2003/2004), 171.
• "Flea Market," Salamander. (Vol. 9, Nos. 1 & 2. Then & Now 10th Anniversary 2003/2004), 172.
• "Triptych," Salamander. (Vol. 9, Nos. 1 & 2. Then & Now 10th Anniversary 2003/2004), 172.
• "Home Reel," Green Mountains Review. Vol XVI, No. 2, Fall, 2003), 96.
• "Ohio In Italy, " Green Mountains Review. Vol XVI, No. 2, (Fall, 2003), 97
• "Natural History: The Barn," Pequod, an issue of long poems. Forthcoming, 2005
• "Shutters," Hunger Mountain. No. 4, Spring 2004, 200-202.
• "State Farm Insurance," Paris Review. No, 170 (Summer, 2004), 84-86.
• "Just in Time," TheSaint Ann's Review. Vol 5, No. 1.(Winter/Spring 2004), 48. "Russian Dolls," The Southern Review. (Fall, 2004).
• "Three Stones," Harvard Review, No. 28 (Spring, 2005).
  

Notices of Sandy's work (critical studies, reviews)

• "Like the Bones of Dreams," Heather Ross Miller, The American Scholar (Washington, D.C), Autumn, 1967.
• "Stresses in the Peaceable Kingdom," David Roberts, The Denver Quarterly, Summer, 1967.
• "Four Poets," Barry Spacks, Poetry, Vol 112, April, 1968.
• "Stephen Sandy," Makoto Takashima, Shigaku, No. 4, Tokyo, 1969.
• "Roofs," Eric Horsting, Antioch Review, Vol XXXI, No. 4, Fall, 1971.
• "Roofs," Vernon Young, The Hudson Review (New York), Winter 1971-72.
• "Roofs: There is No Room For Free Fall," Barbara Lazear Ascher, Quadrille, Spring, 1972.
• "American Poets and Japan, Stephen Sandy," Shozo Tokunaga, Poetry Studies, Vol 10, No. 8, Tokyo, 1975.
• "American Poets and Japan, " Shozo Tokunaga, Kotoba no Soyogi: Gendai America Shi. [The Frisson Nouveau, Conbtemporary American Poetry], Tokyo: Chukyo-Shuppan, 1979. pp 326 - 334.
• "Black Box," Douglas K. Currier, Harvard Review No. 17 (Fall, 1999), pp xx-xx.
• "Sandy's 'Surface Impressions,' Richard Nunley, The Berkshire Eagle, Weds May 29, 2002, p A7.
• "Stephen Sandy," Shozo Tokunaga, The Rising Generation, (Vol. CXLVIII-No. 12) Tokyo, Japan: March 1, 2003, 748-749.
• "Surface Impressions, by Stephen Sandy," Peter Campion, Poetry (May, 2003), 98- 100.

Misc. notices

• "Stresses in the Peaceable Kingdom," Harvard Alumni Bulletin, April, 1967.
• "Stresses in the Peaceable Kingdom," Capital Times, May 18, 1967.
• "Several Poets Building to `Collected' Status," The Wall Street Journal, 13 June, 1967.
• "Stresses in the Peaceable Kingdom," Ray Smith, Minneapolis Tribune, 18 June, 1967.
• "Poet of Wit and Loss," Barry Spacks, Boston Sunday Globe, 3 September, - 1967.
• "Beautiful Poems: A Rare Collection," John A, Wood, Richmond Times Dispatch, (Richmond, Va.), 3 October, 1971.
• "Roofs, " New Dominion Magazine, December, 1971.
• "Two Poets, Two Statements," Martin Robbins, Boston Sunday Globe, 23 January 1972.
• "A Poet, Stephen Sandy," Libby Bogel, Choragos, Mt Holyoke College, 9 March,
  1972.
• "Roofs," Richard Howard, American Poetry Review (Philadelphia), May-June, 1973.
• "Sandy Reads from his Work," Alison Zepp, Pipe Dream (Binghamton), 26 April, 1977.
• "The Difficulty," Dick Higgins, Margins (Milwaukee), pp. 24-26, 1975.
• "Riding to Greylock," Kate Lewis, The Harvard Advocate (Cambridge), June 1983.
• "Three Poets," Bruce Bennett, The New York Times Book Review , July 17,1983, pp 10, 16.
• "Notes on Current Books," The Virginia Quarterly Review, Vol. 59, No 3 (Summer, 1983), p 99.