Jay Meek was an Ameriacn poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, and director of the Creative Writing program at the University of North Dakota

University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...

. He was the poetry editor of the North Dakota Quarterly for many years.

He graduated from University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 in 1959, from Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

 with a master's degree in creative writing in 1963.
He taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...

, Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...

, Memphis State University, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Memorial University of Newfoundland, is a comprehensive university located primarily in St...

, Colby College

Colby College

Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...

 (Maine) and Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

.

In 2005, he read his poetry at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

.

He married Martha George Meek in 1966; they had a daughter, Anna George Meek, and granddaughter, Sarah Meek.

Awards

• 1985 Guggenheim Fellowship
  Guggenheim Fellowship
  Guggenheim 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...
  
  
• two 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...
  
  Grants
• Pushcart Prize
• Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship.

Works

• The week the dirigible came: poems, Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1976, ISBN 9780915604067
• Drawing on the walls, Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1980, ISBN 9780915604319
• Earthly purposes, Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1984, ISBN 9780915604944
• Stations: poems, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1989, ISBN 9780887480812
• Windows, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1994
• Headlands: new and selected poems, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1997, ISBN 9780887482342
• Trains in winter, Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 2004, ISBN 9780887484063

• The Memphis letters: a novel, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2001, ISBN 9780887483653

Anthologies

• "Sonny Liston", Perfect in their art: poems on boxing from Homer to Ali, Editors Robert Hedin, Michael Waters, SIU Press, 2003, ISBN 9780809325313
• "Visiting My Boyhood Friend after His Stroke", Line drives: 100 contemporary baseball poems, Editors Brooke Horvath, Tim Wiles, SIU Press, 2002, ISBN 9780809324408
• "The Week the Dirigible Came", The Zeppelin reader: stories, poems, and songs from the age of airships, Editor Robert Hedin, University of Iowa Press, 1998, ISBN 9780877456292

External links