Mark Doty
Encyclopedia
Mark Doty is an American poet
and memoir
ist.
, Tennessee
, earned his Bachelor of Arts
from Drake University
in Des Moines, Iowa
, and received his Master of Fine Arts
in creative writing
from Goddard College
in Vermont
.
In 1989, his partner Wally Roberts tested positive for HIV
, which drastically changed Doty's writing. Roberts's death in 1994 inspired Doty to write Atlantis. Heaven's Coast: A Memoir also deals with this subject. In 1995, he was the first American poet to win the £10,000 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
, for his book My Alexandria. The book was also a finalist for the National Book Award
and the winner of the 1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry and the National Book Critics Circle Award
. Doty also received a 1994 Whiting Writers' Award
.
He has written twelve books of poetry and three memoirs. Firebird told the story of his childhood in the American South and in Arizona. Dog Years was a memoir of the lives of two of his dogs who Doty had while dealing with the death of his partner and the devastation of 9-11. Louise Erdrich
praised the book as being "about dogs, that is to say, about everything we cannot talk about... the 'unsayable' about our relationships with animals, and about unspeakable times of loss, Dog Years is not a dark book. It is illuminated from within by gorgeous wonder." Dog Years is the winner of the 2008 American Library Association
Stonewall Book Awards Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award. His last book of poetry Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems won the 2008 National Book Award
for poetry.
He lives in New York City
and Fire Island, New York. He was the John and Rebecca Moores Professor in the graduate program at The University of Houston Creative Writing Program. He has also participated in The Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
's MFA Program for Poets & Writers
and was on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
in August 2006. He is the inaugural judge of the White Crane/James White Poetry Prize for Excellence in Gay Men's Poetry.
He now teaches at Rutgers University
. His husband since 1995 is the writer Paul Lisicky
.
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 memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
ist.
Biography
He was born in MaryvilleMaryville, Tennessee
Maryville is the county seat of Blount County, Tennessee, in the Southeastern United States. The city is located south of Knoxville. Maryville's population was 27,258 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area. Maryville has received a number of accolades for its...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, earned his Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Drake University
Drake University
Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....
in Des Moines, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, and received his Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
from Goddard College
Goddard College
Goddard College is a private, liberal arts college located in Plainfield, Vermont, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Goddard College currently operates on an intensive low-residency model...
in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
.
In 1989, his partner Wally Roberts tested positive for HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
, which drastically changed Doty's writing. Roberts's death in 1994 inspired Doty to write Atlantis. Heaven's Coast: A Memoir also deals with this subject. In 1995, he was the first American poet to win the £10,000 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
T. S. Eliot Prize
The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is awarded by the Poetry Book Society to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Prize was inaugurated in 1993 in celebration of the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday and in...
, for his book My Alexandria. The book was also a finalist for the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
and the winner of the 1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry and the National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
. Doty also received a 1994 Whiting Writers' Award
Whiting Writers' Award
The Whiting Writers' Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2007, winners receive US $50,000.-External links:**...
.
He has written twelve books of poetry and three memoirs. Firebird told the story of his childhood in the American South and in Arizona. Dog Years was a memoir of the lives of two of his dogs who Doty had while dealing with the death of his partner and the devastation of 9-11. Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich
Karen Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
praised the book as being "about dogs, that is to say, about everything we cannot talk about... the 'unsayable' about our relationships with animals, and about unspeakable times of loss, Dog Years is not a dark book. It is illuminated from within by gorgeous wonder." Dog Years is the winner of the 2008 American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
Stonewall Book Awards Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award. His last book of poetry Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems won the 2008 National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
for poetry.
He lives in 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 Fire Island, New York. He was the John and Rebecca Moores Professor in the graduate program at The University of Houston Creative Writing Program. He has also participated in The Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
's MFA Program for Poets & Writers
MFA Program for Poets & Writers
The MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a graduate creative writing program.-History:The MFA Program for Poets & Writers was founded in the 1960s by poet Joseph Langland and is part of the English Department at the University of Massachusetts...
and was on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is a writers' conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont...
in August 2006. He is the inaugural judge of the White Crane/James White Poetry Prize for Excellence in Gay Men's Poetry.
He now teaches at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
. His husband since 1995 is the writer Paul Lisicky
Paul Lisicky
-Biography:Paul Lisicky grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He earned both Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in English from Rutgers University, then received his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. While a student at Iowa, he won a National...
.
Poetry
- 1987: Turtle, Swan, Boston: David R. Godine (reissued, University of Illinois Press, 1999)
- 1991: Bethlehem in Broad Daylight, Boston: David R. Godine (reissued, University of Illinois Press, 1999)
- 1993: My Alexandria, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press (chosen for the National Poetry Series by Philip LevinePhilip Levine (poet)Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...
); London: Jonathan Cape, 1995 - 1995: Atlantis, New York: HarperCollins; London: Jonathan Cape, 1996
- 1998: Sweet Machine, New York, HarperFlamingo; London: Jonathan Cape, 1998
- 2001: Source, New York: HarperCollins; London: Jonathan Cape, 2002
- 2005: School of the Arts, New York: HarperCollins; London: Jonathan Cape, 2005
- 2008: Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, New York, HarperCollins
- 2008: Theories and Apparitions, London: Jonathan Cape
Prose
- 1996: Heaven's Coast (memoir), New York: HarperCollins; London: Jonathan Cape, 1996 (paperback); Stockholm: Kentaur
- 1999: Firebird: A Memoir, New York: HarperCollins; London: Jonathan Cape, 2000
- 2001: Still Life with Oysters and Lemon, Boston: Beacon Press
- 2007: Dog Years, New York: HarperCollins; London: Jonathan Cape, 2007; also published in Brazil, Italy and France
- 2010: The Art of Description, St. Paul: Graywolf Books
Limited and special editions
- 1997: Favrile, New York: Dim Gray Bar Press
- 1998: An Island Sheaf, New York: Dim Gray Bar Press
- 2000: Murano, Los Angeles; The J. Paul Getty MuseumJ. Paul Getty MuseumThe J. Paul Getty Museum, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California...
- 2003: Seeing Venice: Bellotto’s Grand Canal, The J. Paul Getty MuseumJ. Paul Getty MuseumThe J. Paul Getty Museum, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California...
- 2004: Fire to Fire, Sutton Hoo Press
Videotapes
- 1998: Poetry Heaven, a three-part video series, The Dodge Foundation, New Jersey
- 1999: Mark Doty: Readings & Conversations, Lannan Literary Videos, Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles
- 1999: "Fooling with Words", Bill Moyers PBS special, September
External links
- Official Site
- Mark Doty's MySpace
- Audio: Mark Doty at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2008: A Reading
- Audio: Mark Doty at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2008: Keynote Address
- Mark Doty performing "Pipistrelle" on the Indiefeed Performance Poetry Podcast
- Mark Doty's Poets.org bio
- Mark Doty's University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign bio
- Modern American Poetry
- Academy of American Poets
- 'Something Understood', review of The Art of Description in The Oxonian ReviewThe Oxonian ReviewThe Oxonian Review is a literature and arts review journal produced by graduate students at the University of Oxford. Each week during term time, an online edition is published featuring reviews and essays on current affairs and literature...