1242 S. Longwood Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90019
October 17, 2018
Mark Irwin
1242 S. Longwood Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90019
719.744.8499
EDUCATION
1982Ph.D. Case Western Reserve University: English & Comparative Literature.
Dissertation: "Distance, Depersonalization, and Silence in Contemporary American Poetry." Critical dissertation accompanied by book-length ms. of poems: The Halo of Desire.
Dissertation directors: Walter Strauss, Robert Wallace.
1980M.F.A., University of Iowa: Writers' Workshop. (Poetry)
Thesis: The Invention of the Snowman. Thesis Directors: Donald Justice/Marvin Bell
1975Université de Montpellier. 20th Century French Novel & Poetry:
Proust, Beckett, Gide, Camus, Blanchot, Bonnefoy, Dupin, du Bouchet.
1974B.A., Case Western Reserve University. English/Modern Languages & Literature. Concentration: American Literature: Dickinson, Bishop, Ashbery, Melville, Faulkner.
POSITIONS HELD:
2005-2010Univ. of Southern California Assistant Professor: English/Creative Writing
2010-2017Univ. of Southern California Associate Professor: English/Creative Writing
2018-Univ. of Southern California Professor: English/Creative Writing
2002-5 Colorado College (Spring) Visiting Poet /Undergraduate Poetry
2000-01University of Nevada/Las Vegas Visiting Poet/Graduate Poetry Seminars
1999-2000University of Colorado/BoulderVisiting Poet/Graduate Poetry Seminars
1997-98 University of Colorado/BoulderVisiting Poet/Poetry Writing
1995 (fall) University of Colorado/Denver Visiting Writer
1993-94Ohio University. Assistant Professor of English (Visiting Poet)
1992-93University of Denver. Assistant Professor of English (Visiting Poet)
1990-92Fort Lewis College. Assistant Professor of English/Poetry
1990Cleveland State University. Assistant Professor and Visiting Poet
in Residence (spring)
1984-90Cleveland Institute of Art. Associate Professor of Literature, Chairman
of the Foundation Department, which included Liberal Arts.
1982-85University of Akron. Visiting Lecturer.
1981University of Bucharest, Romania. (fall)Fulbright Lecturer
1978-80University of Iowa. Teaching/Writing Fellow in Poetry
COURSES TAUGHT: University of Southern California
ENGL 408: The Poet in Paris/Maymester 2018
ENGL 492: Capstone/Innovative Narratives in Poetry & Painting
ENGL 698: Forms of Seeing; Ways of Listening 2017
ENGL 408: The Poet in Paris/Maymester 2015
ENGL 105: Intro to Creative Writing (Graduate Supervisor 2015)
ENGL 408: The Poet in Paris, Maymester 2015
ENGL 491: Riffs, Rants, & Discourses on Time: Three Genres
ENGL 696 Graduate Poetry Workshop;
ENGL 105 Creative Writing for Non Majors
ENGL 304 Rag & Boneshop of the Heart: Intro Poetry Writing
ENGL 501 Critical Theory (with Bruce Smith
ENGL 456: Contemporary World Poetry;
ENGL 456 Major Modern & Contemporary Poets in Translation
ENGL 408, 406, 304: Advanced , Intermediate, & Intro Poetry Workshop
ARLT 100 Rebels & Non-Conformists In Contemporary American Literature
ARLT 100 Quester Hero from Classical to Contemporary Literature
ARLT 100 Pioneers of the Impossible: Writers Crossing Boundaries
COURSES TAUGHT ELSEWHERE:
Graduate and undergraduate Poetry Workshops; Contemporary Poetry Translation Workshop;
Graduate Seminar: The Long Poem as Genre; Graduate Seminar: Impact of the Media on Literature and the Visual Arts; Graduate/Undergraduate Seminar: History of American Literature (1700-1865); Graduate Seminar: Major European Poets in Translation; Graduate Seminar: Faulkner, Melville, Wolfe; Philosophy of Nature, Philosophy of Art;
Comparative Religion; Major Western Philosophers; Contemporary American Painting;
European Literature Surveys I & II; British Romantic Literature; Cont. American Poetry Survey.
BOOKS: (Poetry)
A Passion According to Green. New Issues, Western Michigan University Press. Feb. 2017. 71 pp.
American Urn: New & Selected Poems (1987-2013). Ashland University Poetry Press, Feb. 2015 February 2015.
Large White House Speaking: New Issues, Western Michigan University Press, March, 2013. 71 pp.
Tall If.Kalamazoo: New Issues Poetry & Prose, Western Michigan University Press, 2008, 73pp.
Bright Hunger. New York: BOA Edition, 2004. 75 pp.
White City. New York: BOA Editions, 2000. 79pp.
Quick, Now, Always. New York: BOA Editions, 1996. 86pp.
Against the Meanwhile (3 Elegies). Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1989. 86 pp.
The Halo of Desire. Baltimore: The Galileo Press, 1987. 78 pp
BOOKS (Critical):
Monster: Distortion, Abstraction, & Originality in Contemporary American Poetry. NY: Peter Lang, 2017. 205 pp.
BOOKS: (Translation)
Zanzibar: Selected Poems & Letters of Arthur Rimbaud.(with a 65 pp. afterword by Alain Borer)
(work in progress)
Ask The Circle to Forgive You. Selected Poems 1964-1979. Nichita Stanescu. New York: Globe Press, 1983. 74 pp. Translated from the Romanian with Mariana Carpinisan, with an introduction by Mark Irwin.
Notebook of Shadows. Philippe Denis. New York: Globe Press, 1982. 68 pp. Translated from the French, with an introduction by Mark Irwin.
AWARDS AND HONORS (Partial list
2018Albert Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award (Who’s Who in America)
2018Hall of Fame Inductee (Marion L. Steele High School): Amherst, Ohio
2015“Orpheus” partial libretto in west coast premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice/UCLA
2014 Finalist Housatonic Book Award for Poetry
2014Finalist Miller Williams Prize for Poetry
2013FDT Grant to University of Tours, France (Reading/Lecture)
2011/12Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities Award/ USC
2010Phi Kappa Phi Recognition Award for Tall If
2009Tall If / Notable Book: International Poetry Review/Bloomsbury Review
2009Mellon Mentoring Award (Graduate Students) USC
2008USC Visions & Voices Grant: Praxis & Poetry
2007Pushcart Prize for Poetry
2006Lois Beebe Hayna Award / Western Poetry Society
2005Colorado Book Award for Poetry for Bright Hunger
2004Pushcart Prize in Poetry
2002-03Colorado Council on the Arts Individual Fellowship/ Poetry
2000Colorado Book Award for White City
2000James Wright Poetry Award/ Bowling Green State University/Ohio
1999 Pushcart Prize in Poetry
1996Colorado Recognition for Literature Award
1995Pushcart Prize in Poetry
1993-94NEA Fellowship in Poetry
1989Lilly Foundation Grant/Poetry and its relationship to painting.
1988Helene Wurlitzer Foundation/Fellow, May - August. (Taos, New Mexico)
1985-86Ohio Arts Council Individual Fellowship for Poetry.
1985-86Finalist for General Electric Younger Writers' Award.
1984The Nation/Discovery Award for Poetry. New York YM-YWHA Poetry Center.
Judges: Amichai, Graham, Halpern
1981Fulbright Traveling Fellowship to Romania.
1978-80Teaching/Writing Fellowship. Writers' Workshop at University of Iowa.
1977Wright-Plaisance Traveling Fellowship to France.
PUBLICATIONS: Poetry (Recent Selected while at University of Southern California)
32 Poems:“And” “Standing over her”Fall 2018
American Life in Poetry / Poetry Foundation: “Open” (reprinted)4/29/19
Boston Review: “Elegy with Forest & TV’s” Post Ecology ForumJune/July 2018
Massachusetts Review: Interview/WebsiteSpring 2018
Poetry Northwest: “Dear Red,” “Or,” ”How to Gather it All Up”Forthcoming
FIELD:“Dissolving Parable,” “Open”Spring 2018
New York Times Magazine: “Sometimes”Jan. 12, 2018
Pleiades:“One of your wisdom teeth”Winter 2018
Massachusetts Review: “Human Pageant”Winter 2017
Lana Turner:“Poems, Letters, Essay/Arthur Rimbaud”Fall 2017
Conjunctions 68: Seven PoemsJune 2017
The Southern Review “Toward Where We Are,” “Voyage”Spring 2017
The Hudson Review: “Little Transfiguration Suite”Spring 2017
Plume 5: “Who” “Rimbaud”Spring 2017
Pleiades: “One of your wisdom teeth,”Forthcoming
Copper Nickel: “Emaciated white horse, still alive…”Fall 2016
The Southern Review: “Zoo,” “Lights”Winter 2016
Plume: “Sometimes”October,2016
Pilgrimage: “Look,”Spring 2017
New American Writing: “In the mouth,” “Reach”Spring 2016
Great River Review: Two PoemsFall 2017
Blackbird: “Four Poems”Spring 2017
Boston Review: “The words,”Jan/Feb 2016
Field: “Events miniaturized, but…”Fall 2015
Plume 2016 “A Zipper”Spring 2016
Pleiades: “Whatever”Spring 2016
New American Writing: “Listen, Listen,” “Psalm”Spring 2015
Descant “Three Poems of Arthur Rimbaud”Spring 2016
Poetry Daily: “Two Poems”January 3, 2016
Watchlist Anthology: “The Gift” (fiction) Spring 2016
Plume Anthology 2015 “Safety Pin”Spring 2015
The Literary Review: “Two Poems” Fall 2015
Academy of American Poets Web:“Poof! Spring, 2015
Conjunctions Web: “Three Poems”Fall 2015
American Literary Review:”Paint”Fall 2015
Missouri Review: “Otherwise Than Our Bodies”Spring, 2015
Watchlist Fiction Anthology “The Gift”OR BooksSpring 2015
New Letters: “Firenze Pieta”Fall 2014
Free Verse “Three Poems”Fall 2014
Pleiades: “Field Events”Fall 2014
Tin House: “A fly,” “Primer”Fall 2013
Agni Review “A Tiny Cage”Spring 2013
Plume Anthology 2014 “Elephants”Spring 2014
Hotel Amerika “Three Poems”Spring 2014
Denver Quarterly: “View”Spring 2014
Ghost Train: “Three Poems”Fall 2014
American Poetry Review: “Large White House Speaking,” “The Rat”March 2013
Field: “Moment”Spring 2012
Columbia “Two Horses,”” Spring”” Ritual”Spring 2013
Plume: “ Circus,” ”Elephants”Spring 2013
Pleiades: “Spring”Spring 2013
American Life in Poetry “Portraits” Poetry Foundation Syndicated ColumnFeb.18 2013
New American Writing: “Psalm”Spring 2012
Cincinnati Review:“The Mirror in My Parents’ Bedroom”Winter 2012
Blackbird: “Brief Father,” “Peeling”Summer 2012
New Ohio Review:“Speed of Light”Spring 2012
Poetry (Chicago)“Somniloques” trans. French Alain Borer (Feature) March 2012
Field:“There’s a Jet”Spring 2012
Plume Anthology“Powder”Spring 2012
Massachusetts Review: “Laughing”Fall 2012.
Poetry“Poem Beginning with a Line from Milosz”May 2011
Field“Open House,” ”Horizon”Fall 2010
Plume“Powder”Fall 2011
Free VerseThree PoemsJuly 2011
The Offending Adam “Interview with Mark Irwin”August 2011
Colorado Review:“Creation”Spring 2011
Smartish Pace:“Of the Body”Spring 2011
Fifth Wednesday“Engine,” “On Earth”Fall 2010
The Journal“Trying to Translate from Memory”Fall 2010
Crazyhorse“Helmet,” “About”Summer 2010 #77
Kenyon Review:“Elegy”Winter 2011
FIELD:“Open House,” “Horizon”Fall 2010
Poetry International: “A Vanilla Cake,” “Luella,” “Shoes”Spring/Summer 2010
Boston Review:“The Cake”January 2010
PLEIADES:“For Your Viewing Pleasure”Spring 2011
New American Writing“Adorned”Spring 2010
Alaska Quarterly:“Where”Forthcoming
Colorado Review:“What You Might Say About Christ”Spring 2010
The Sun:“Portraits”July 2010
Subtropics:“On Sunday, Sometimes”Forthcoming
New Letters:“The Death of Death”Spring 2010
Denver Quarterly:“Two Poems”Winter 2010
The Journal:“Trying to Translate from Memory”Fall 2009
Denver Quarterly:“Survey,” “Stopping By the River in Spring”Fall 2009
Iowa Review:“Ghost”Spring/Summer 2009
Poetry International:“Sunday”Summer 2009
New American Writing: “Here,” “The Singular of Trees”Summer 2009
Kenyon Review: “In Winter,” “Red Feather”Spring 2009
Poetry (Chicago): “Landscape with Horse Named Popcorn”March 2009
AGNI Review: “Table of Contents,” “Tell Me”Winter 2009
Witness: “Avian & Lit by Air,” “Horse,” “Inventory”Spring 2009
Salt Hill: “Essay on Potatoes,” How the Dead...” “TV”Spring 2009
New American Writing: “Paperclip”Summer 2008
Free Verse: “Elegy,” “Landscape Crossed with Sleep & Prayer”Dec. 2008
Verse Daily: “Eurudice & Orpheus”Feb 18, 2009
Poetry Daily: “Voice, Distant, Still Assembling”Nov 29.2008
Antioch Review: “Aria (With a Hole in It)”Spring 2008
Georgia Review: “Rider”Summer 2008
Poetry (Chicago): “Empire”May 2008
New Letters: “Once Out of Nature”Spring 2008
Gulf Coast: “Church Engine,” “Resume,”Summer/Fall 2008
American Poetry Review: “Sailor,” “The Nest”May/June 2007
Hotel Amerika: “Lucky Boy”Spring 2008
TriQuarterly:“Concrete,” “Home,” “Yes,” “Psalm”Fall 2007
Pushcart Prize XXXI Best of the Small Presses: “Elegy (with Advertisement)
Struggling to Find Its Hero”Jan. 2007
FIVE POINTS: “Mother”Spring 2007
Third Coast: “Augenblick”Spring 2007
LUNA: “Four Poems”Spring 2007
INTERIM: “Five Poems”Spring 2006
Eleventh Muse: “Windows”Spring 2006
FIELD: “What I Remember”Fall 2006
American Letters & Commentary: “Summons”Winter 2006
Hawaii Pacific Review: “Sermon”Winter 2006
American Literary Review: “Passing”Fall 2006
American Letters & Commentary # 17: “Long Portrait”Spring 2005
Denver Quarterly: “Ends”Spring 2005
Lake Effect:“Corpse.” “Panels”Spring 2005
Colorado Review: “Ars Poetica,” “After”Fall2005
Kenyon Review: “Elegy (with Advertisement) Struggling...”Fall 2005
Marginalia: “The Lastingness of Things Only Appears in a Brief Light”Fall 2005
PUBLICATIONS: Poetry / Periodicals (partial List)
American Poetry Review, Antaeus, Agni Review, The Antioch Review, The Atlantic Monthly, American Letters & Commentary, Amicus Journal, Bloomsbury Review, Boulevard, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, Cincinnati Poetry Review, Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, FIELD, Georgia Review, The International Poetry Review, The Iowa Review,The Jounal, The Kenyon Review, The Malahat Review, Mid-American Review, The Nation, 88, New England Review, New York Times, New American Writing, The New Republic, ORION, Ohio Review, Paris Review, Pequod, Poetry, Pushcart Press, Runes, Quarry West, Seneca Review, Shenandoah, Triquarterly, VOLT.
ANTHOLOGIES (partial list)
Plume 6: “Who” “Spare Key”Spring 2018
Plume 5: “Who” “Rimbaud”Spring 2017
Plume 4 2016 “A Zipper”Spring 2016
Watchlist: 32 Stories by Persons of Interest. (Fiction) Catapult Books, Spring 2015
Plume 3 Poetry Anthology “Safety Pin”Summer 2015
Watchlist Fiction Anthology “The Gift”OR BooksSpring 2015
Live Life: International Anthology of Poetry & Fiction. R. McGentleman, ed. (‘Trying to Translate,” “Poem Beginning with a Line by Milosz”) Univ. Wisconsin Press, 2012.
Poems of Awakening: International Anthology of Spiritual Poetry. Betsy Small, ed. (“My Father’s Hats”). Denver: Outskirts Press, 2012.
Alhambra International Poetry Calendar 2012/13. “Open House” Shafiq Naz, ed.
Bertem, Belgium. 2012.
Poets of the American West, Lowell Jaeger, ed. (3 Poems) Univ. Montana Press, Kalispell,
MT. 2010.
Alhambra International Poetry Calendar 2011. “What You Might Say of Christ” Shafiq Naz,
ed. Bertem, Belgium. 2011.
Columbia Granger Encyclopedia of Poetry (“Landscape with a Horse”)
NEA Contemporary American Poets (China) David Mason, ed. (2 Poems) Washington, DC 2011.
Pushcart Prize Anthologies (1995, 1999, 2003, 2007) NY: Pushcart Press/ W.W. Norton
Writing Poems, 5th Edition. (”Buffalo”) Wallace, Boisseau, eds. New York: Longman, 2006.
This Life & Beyond (“Mansion of Happiness”) Chapman, Strasser, eds. Univ. Iowa Press, 2007.
ANGELS OF POETRY (“My Father’s Hats”) New York: BOA Editions, 2006.
Poetry 180: Anthology of Contemporary Poems. Billy Collins, ed. Random House, 2003.
Sites of Insight: Sacred Places of Colorado, James Lough, ed. University of Colorado Press, 2003.
GOOD POEMS: Contemporary American Poems. Garrison Keillor, ed. Viking, 2002
Orpheus & Co. Contemporary American Poems. D. Denicola, ed. New England UP, 1999.
Western Wind. Introduction to Poetry. 5th ed. Mason & Nims, eds. (“The Irises” “X”) McGrawHill, 2005.
Writing Poems 4th Ed.. Wallace & Boisseau, eds. (3 Poems) HarperCollins, 2000.
TRANSLATIONS:
Translations from the works of Alain Borer, Philippe Denis, Arthur Rimbaud, Pierre Torreilles (France); Nichita Stanescu (Romania); Holderlin and Rilke (German). Several of the above have appeared in the following:
Descant, The International Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, Modern Poetry in Translation (London),
Lana Turner, Mundus Artium, Poetry, New England Review, The Seneca Review, and World Literature Today.
TRANSLATIONS: (Anthologies)
Ardis Anthology of Eastern European Poetry. University of Michigan Press, 1982. (Poems of Nichita Stanescu, Romania)
New Directions, 46. New York, 1982. (10 poems of Philippe Denis, France)
PUBLISHED ARTICLES:(Partial List)
“Diaspora & Metamorphosis in Donald Revell’s “Short Fantasia” UMichigan Press, 2019.
“’The Songs We Know Best’: John Ashbery’s Early Life” Essay/ Review of Karin Roffman’s
biography. RALS: Penn Sate Univ. Press Fall 2018
“The Emergency of Poetry” (Featured) Zone 3 Journal, Spring 2017.
“Ethereal Streaked by the Real”: On the Poetry of Angie Estes. UMichigan Press, 2018.
“Articulating the Ineffable: Jim Simmerman’s ‘A Child’s Grave, Hale, Alabama’”
Published in: The Blood, Bone, & Flesh of it All. J.Jay,ed. Los Angeles: Gorsky Press, 2017.
“Memory’s Escape: Inventing the Music of Chance” Published in:
Conversations with Paul Auster. James Hutchisson, ed. University of Mississippi Press,2015.
“Poetry & Originality: ‘Have You Been There Before?’” AWP Journal, Oct. 2015, 21pp.
“Orpheus, Parzival, Bartleby: Forms of Abstraction in Poetry." Literary Imagination, Volume 15, #2, Summer 2013. Oxford University Press, 39 pp. (illustrated).
“A Romp Through Ruefleland.” American Poetry Review, June/July 2013, 13 pp.
“Five Turns in Anne Carson’s ‘On Shelter’”Voltage, Spring, 20135pp.
“The Art of Composition is the Art of Transition.” Poetry International. Fall 2011, 17pp.
“Distortion and Disjunction in Contemporary American Poetry.” American Poetry Review,
November/December 2011, 19 pp.
“Poetry & Memorability.” Associated Writing Program Journal, December 2010, 15 pp.
“The Poem as Concept.” Parthenon West (San Francisco), vol. 8, Winter 2008, 7pp.
“Raising Poetry to a Higher Power.” American Poetry Review, Nov./Dec. 2008, 12 pp.
“Three Notions of Truth in Poetry.” American Poetry Review, July/August, 2008, 14pp.
“Extravagances, Hesitancies, & Urgencies: On the Line in Poetry.” Slope Editions, SUNY, NY.
Summer 2008. 11pp.
“The Physiology & Geography of Bill” Introduction to BILL, by William Rector. Proem Press Poetry Series, Los Angles/Denver 2007. 6pp.
“Hyperbole as Glimpsed in Poetry & the Visual Arts.Marginalia,Spring 20079pp.
“Eros & Gnosticism in the Poetry of Linda Gregg.” Greenwood Encyclopedia of Contemporary Poetry. NY, NY. 2006. 5pp.
“Theater of Encounter: Hommage to Czeslaw Milosz.”Lake Effect,Spring 2006. 5pp.
“Horrors of Order: On Postmodern & Formal Poetry.”The Journal,Spring 2005. 7pp.
“Le Bateau Ivre: A Note on Rimbaud’s Puddle.” (with translation) New England Review, 2001. 7pp.
“Machine’s Corpe: Alice Notley’s Descent of Alette.” Denver Quarterly, Fall 1997. 9pp.
“Kite’s Body: The Poetry of Jorie Graham.” Denver Quarterly, Fall 1996. 9pp.
“Heartmusic: Study for the World’s Body /Poetry of David St. John.” Denver Quarterly,
Summer, 1995. 11pp
"Orpheus, Parzival, Bartleby: The Function of Abstraction in Poetry." 37 pp. SEL, 1993
"Gravity and Ghosts: The Physics of Wallace Stevens' 'Large Red Man Reading'." Wallace Stevens Journal, Spring 1993. 5pp.
"Inventing The Music of Chance." Special Issue of Dalkey Archives Review on the Fiction of Paul Auster, Spring 1993. 5pp.
"Expiring Wilderness, Churching the Suburbs: on Eric Fischl's Best Western." Denver Quarterly, Summer 1993. 5pp.
"Jasper Johns: Target with Four Faces." Denver Quarterly, Summer 1993. 4 pp.
"Toward a Wilderness of the Artificial." The Ohio Review, Winter 1992. 11pp.
"Great Turbines and Little Coins: New Dark Ages -- The Recent Work of Donald Revell. " Black Warrior Review. Fall 1991.
"Paris, Texas: Romancing the American Desert." The Denver Quarterly, Winter 1991. 5pp.
"Toward a Tragic Wisdom and Beyond: Poetry of Yehuda Amichai and Norman Dubie." The Kenyon Review. Winter 1987. 9pp.
"The Image Confined: 20th Century American Poetry." World Literature Today. Spring 1985.
"Immediacy in Poetry." Mid-American Review. Bowling Green State University, Spring 1984.
"The Architecture of Absence: Contemporary American and French Poetry." Substance 23/24. University of Wisconsin, 1979. 5pp.
REVIEWS: (The following reviews appeared in World Literature Today.)
Nichita Stanescu. Operele Imperfecte. Bucharest. Albatros. 1979. (Summer 1979)
Philippe Denis. Carnet d'un Aveuglement. Paris. Flammarion. 1980. (Spring 1981)
Richard Hugo. The Right Madness on Skye. New York. Norton, 1980. (Summer 1981)
W. S. Merwin. Unframed Originals. New York. Atheneum. 1982. (Spring 1983)
James Tate. Constant Defender. New York. Ecco. 1983. (Spring 1984)