Donald Revell
Encyclopedia
Donald Revell is an American poet, essayist, translator
and professor.
Revell has won numerous honors and awards for his work, beginning with his first book, From the Abandoned Cities, which was a National Poetry Series
winner. More recently, he won the 2004 Lenore Marshall Award and is a two-time winner of the PEN Center USA Award in poetry. He has also received the Gertrude Stein Award, two Shestack Prizes, two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as from the Ingram Merrill and Guggenheim Foundations. His most recent book is The Bitter Withy (Alice James Books
, 2009).
Revell has taught at the Universities of Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, Alabama, Colorado, and Utah. He currently teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, poet Claudia Keelan
, and their children. In addition to his writing, translating, and teaching, Revell was Editor of Denver Quarterly from 1988–94, and has been a poetry editor of Colorado Review
since 1996.
Revell received his B.A. from Harpur College in 1975, his M.A. from SUNY Binghamton in 1977 and his Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo in 1980.
Translations
Essay Collections
for The Nation, he comments on Pennyweight Windows: New & Selected Poems:
In TIME Magazine, Lev Grossman
wrote about Pennywight Windows:
There is a theme here and in other reviews of Revell's recent books. Stephen Burts opens his review with a comment about how much Revell's work has changed in twenty years, noting the stylistic evolution, and the increasingly spiritual focus of Revell's work, which Grossman observes in his, and which Revell corroborates in an interview by Poets & Writers: "What's next for me? I am concerned with the governance of heaven, which is mostly silence. Living in Utah and Nevada, I take my current instruction from snow and sand. They are heavenly forms-substantial and effortless. May poems be so."
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
and professor.
Revell has won numerous honors and awards for his work, beginning with his first book, From the Abandoned Cities, which was a National Poetry Series
National Poetry Series
The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program.Every year since 1979 it has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry...
winner. More recently, he won the 2004 Lenore Marshall Award and is a two-time winner of the PEN Center USA Award in poetry. He has also received the Gertrude Stein Award, two Shestack Prizes, two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as from the Ingram Merrill and Guggenheim Foundations. His most recent book is The Bitter Withy (Alice James Books
Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington.- History and mission :...
, 2009).
Revell has taught at the Universities of Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, Alabama, Colorado, and Utah. He currently teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
University of Nevada-Las Vegas is a public, coeducational university located in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada, USA. The campus is located approximately east of the Las Vegas Strip. The institution includes a Shadow Lane Campus, located just east of the University Medical Center of...
. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, poet Claudia Keelan
Claudia Keelan
-Life:Keelan, who was born in Anaheim, California, is a graduate of Humboldt State University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Missing Her , and has published poems widely in magazines and journals, including The American Poetry Review,...
, and their children. In addition to his writing, translating, and teaching, Revell was Editor of Denver Quarterly from 1988–94, and has been a poetry editor of Colorado Review
Colorado Review
Colorado Review is a major American literary journal published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.The journal presents the annual Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction...
since 1996.
Revell received his B.A. from Harpur College in 1975, his M.A. from SUNY Binghamton in 1977 and his Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo in 1980.
Honors and awards
- 2008 NEA Translation Award
- 2005 LA Times Book Prize in Poetry Finalist for Pennyweight Windows
- 2005 National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship - 2004 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for My Mojave
- 2003 PEN Center USA Award for Poetry
- 1992 Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in Poetry - 1991 PEN Center USA Award for Poetry
- 1988 National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship - 1985 Pushcart PrizePushcart PrizeThe Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
Published works
Poetry Collections- The Bitter Withy (Alice James BooksAlice James BooksAlice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington.- History and mission :...
, 2009) - A Thief of Strings (Alice James Books, 2007)
- Pennyweight Windows: New And Selected Poems (Alice James Books, 2005)
- My Mojave (Alice James Books, 2003)
- Arcady (Wesleyan University PressWesleyan University PressWesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The Press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist...
, 2002) - There Are Three (Wesleyan University Press, 1998)
- Beautiful Shirt (Wesleyan University Press, 1994)
- Erasures' * There Are Three (Wesleyan University Press, 1992)
- New Dark Ages * There Are Three (Wesleyan University Press, 1990)
- The Ghaza of Winter * There Are Three (University of Georgia Press, 1988)
- From the Abandoned Cities (Harper & Row Publishers, 1983)
Translations
- A Season in HellA Season in HellUne Saison en Enfer is an extended poem written and published in 1873 by French writer Arthur Rimbaud. It is the only work that was published by Rimbaud himself...
by Arthur RimbaudArthur RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
(Omnidawn Publishing, 2007) - The Self-Dismembered Man: Selected Later Poems of Guillaume Apollinaire (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)
- Alcools: Poems by Guillaume ApollinaireGuillaume ApollinaireWilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
(Wesleyan University Press, 1995)
Essay Collections
- The Art of Attention: A Poet's Eye (Graywolf PressGraywolf PressGraywolf Press is an independent, non-profit publisher located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Founded on a dedication to the creation and promotion of thoughtful and imaginative contemporary literature essential to a vital and diverse culture, Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.Now...
, 2007) - Invisible Green: Selected Prose (OmniDawn, 2005)
Reviews
In a retrospective review of Revell's work written by Stephen BurtStephen Burt
Stephen Burt is a literary critic, poet, and a professor who teaches at Harvard University.-Elliptical Poetry:Burt received significant attention for coining the term "elliptical poetry" in a 1998 book review of Susan Wheeler's book, Smokes, in Boston Review magazine...
for The Nation, he comments on Pennyweight Windows: New & Selected Poems:
Revell now seeks a poetry appropriate not only to loneliness but to anger and happiness, not only to freighted symbols but to facts, not only to doubt but to faith. What's more, he seems to have found what he seeks.
In TIME Magazine, Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist, notably the author of the novels Warp , Codex , The Magicians and The Magician King...
wrote about Pennywight Windows:
it takes guts to write more poems about peace, war, God and children, but Revell's are so fresh, it's as if he's the first person ever to do it. He makes you feel how painfully near grace and redemption are at all times, and yet how unattainable."
There is a theme here and in other reviews of Revell's recent books. Stephen Burts opens his review with a comment about how much Revell's work has changed in twenty years, noting the stylistic evolution, and the increasingly spiritual focus of Revell's work, which Grossman observes in his, and which Revell corroborates in an interview by Poets & Writers: "What's next for me? I am concerned with the governance of heaven, which is mostly silence. Living in Utah and Nevada, I take my current instruction from snow and sand. They are heavenly forms-substantial and effortless. May poems be so."