James Reiss
Encyclopedia
Biography
James Reiss grew up in the Washington HeightsWashington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
section of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and in northern New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. He earned his B.A. and his M.A. in English from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
His poems have appeared in various magazines, including The Atlantic, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Poetry
Poetry (magazine)
Poetry , published in Chicago, Illinois since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Published by the Poetry Foundation and currently edited by Christian Wiman, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000 and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately...
, Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
and Virginia Quarterly Review.
He has won grants from the Creative Artists Public Service Program of the New York State Council on the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
The New York State Council on the Arts is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell , with backing from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and began its work in 1961...
, the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The 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...
. the New York Foundation for the Arts
New York Foundation for the Arts
The New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...
and the Ohio Arts Council
Ohio Arts Council
The Ohio Arts Council is an agency serving the U.S. state of Ohio.Established in 1965, its mission is to "foster and encourage the development of the arts and assist the preservation of Ohio's cultural heritage." Each year it awards grants to arts organizations and individuals throughout the state...
. He has received awards from, among others, the Academy of American Poets
Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
, the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, the Pushcart Press
Pushcart Press
Pushcart Press is a publishing house established in 1972 by Bill Henderson and is perhaps most famous for its Pushcart Prize and for the anthology of prize winners it publishes annually. The press has been honored by Publishers Weekly as one of the USA's "most influential publishers" with the 1979...
and the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...
in New York City. From 1971-1974 he was a regular poetry critic for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1977 he won first prize in New York’s Big Apple Bicentennial Poetry Contest. He won four annual Zeitfunk awards for his reviewing, in 2007-2010, from the Public Radio Exchange
Public Radio Exchange
The Public Radio Exchange is a nonprofit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization claims to be the largest on-demand catalog of public radio programs available for broadcast and Internet use.-Mission:According to PRX's site, its mission...
.
In 1975-76 he taught as poet-in-residence at Queens College, CUNY.
He is Emeritus Professor of English and Founding Editor of Miami University Press at Miami University
Miami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
in Oxford, Ohio
Oxford, Ohio
Oxford is a city in northwestern Butler County, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern portion of the state. It lies in Oxford Township, originally called the College Township. The population was 21,943 at the 2000 census. This college town was founded as a home for Miami University. Oxford...
, where his students, among others, were Rita Dove
Rita Dove
Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"...
and Adrienne Miller
Adrienne Miller
Adrienne Miller is an American writer. From 1997 to 2005, she was the fiction editor of Esquire. She is also the Favorite Professor Ever of many of her students, one in particular.-Early life:...
.
He has two married daughters, Heather and Crystal by his first wife, Barbara Eve Miller (née Klevs). His second wife, Mary Jo McMillin, wrote Mary Jo’s Cuisine: A Cookbook (2007). He lives in the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
area.
Books
- Greatest Hits: 1970-2005 (Pudding House Press, 2005)
- Riff on Six: New and Selected Poems (Salt PublishingSalt PublishingSalt Publishing is an independent publisher whose origins date back to 1990 when poet John Kinsella launched Salt Magazine in Western Australia. The journal rapidly developed an international reputation as a leading publisher of new poetry and poetics...
, 2003) - Ten Thousand Good Mornings (Carnegie Mellon University PressCarnegie Mellon University PressCarnegie Mellon University Press is a publisher that is part of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.It is headquartered within the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences in Baker Hall and specializes in poetry. Gerald Costanzo is the founder and...
, 2001) - The Parable of Fire (Carnegie Mellon University PressCarnegie Mellon University PressCarnegie Mellon University Press is a publisher that is part of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.It is headquartered within the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences in Baker Hall and specializes in poetry. Gerald Costanzo is the founder and...
, 1996) - Express (University of Pittsburgh PressUniversity of Pittsburgh PressThe University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States....
, 1983) - The Breathers (Ecco PressEcco PressEcco Press is a publishing imprint of HarperCollins, who acquired it in 1999. It was founded in 1971 by Daniel Halpern as an independent publishing company. Until 1994 the press was the publisher of the literary magazine Antaeus.- External links :**...
, 1974) - Self-Interviews: James Dickey, co-ed. (Doubleday, 1970; Louisiana State University PressLouisiana State University PressThe Louisiana State University Press is a nonprofit book publisher and an academic unit of Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, the press publishes scholarly, general interest, and regional books as part of the university’s mission to disseminate knowledge and culture...
, 1984)
External links
- http://www.jamesreiss.com/
- http://www.units.muohio.edu/english/People/Faculty/Q_Z/ReissJames.html
- http://spec.lib.muohio.edu/James%20Reiss%20Collection.pdf
- http://www.prx.org/users/33518-jamesreiss/comments
- http://en.wordpress.com/tag/james-reiss/
- http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/094.html
Reviews
- Helen VendlerHelen VendlerHelen Hennessy Vendler is a leading American critic of poetry.-Life and career:Vendler has written books on Emily Dickinson, W. B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, John Keats, and Seamus Heaney. She has been a professor of English at Harvard University since 1984; between 1981 and 1984 she taught...
The New York Times Book Review, April 6, 1975: “In Reiss, poems are laid in drawers, folded in books; memories are like pictures cut out of magazines, inertia and insomnia are the two forms of life. Pursued by the same phantoms, which reappear on the telephone, in sequential rooms, in snapshots, in slides, Reiss writes them down in an accomplished plain style, with a momentum carrying whole poems along on the humming acceleration of a single sentence. . . . Reiss has the indispensable gift of rhythm, and that, combined with his compulsive subject, makes a very good beginning.” - The New York Times Book Review, Summer Reading 1975, June 1, 1975: The Breathers. "Unusually good first book."
- Peter MeinkePeter MeinkePeter Meinke is an American poet and author. He has published 17 books of poems and short stories. The Piano Tuner, won the 1986 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. His poetry has received many awards, including 2 NEA Fellowships and 3 prizes from the Poetry Society of America...
The New Republic, June 14, 1975: “All in all, this is an impressive first book, solid rather than flashy; although these poems do not make grand pronouncements they have as their source what Howard Nemerov called ‘great primary human drama,’ and they are always interesting and often moving.” - Richard HowardRichard HowardRichard Howard is an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied under Mark Van Doren, and where he now teaches...
The Ohio Review, Winter 1975: “What is creative, Keats observed, must create itself; James Reiss goes about it so attractively that we are beguiled, almost, into forgetting the scandal, the labor, the pain of the negative in this first book of poems. He has inspected the nostalgias, he has scoured the horizon of reminiscence, and so ingeniously has he repeated his findings, his losses, that it is not until about half way through the book that the realization dawns—‘where the sky blooms like a dark rose’—that this is all one poem, one life. . . . “ - Dulcy Brainard Publishers Weekly, February 26, 1996: “From the dark ruminations of ‘Castrati in Caesar’s Court’. . .and ‘Memorial Quilt, Central Park’. . .to the hard-boiled nostalgia of ‘Mexico’. . .Reiss imagines himself into situations rich with the bitterness of loss or deprivation. The volume concludes on a positive note, however, with one of Reiss’s best poems, ‘Eclipse the Dark/ My Fiftieth Birthday: July 11, 1941,’ in which his fear of aging and death is transformed into a celebration of ‘the light which surrounds us / and comes from within us’—a conclusion that confirms the close attention Reiss pays the world in even the collection’s darkest explorations.”