Peter Cooley is an American poet and Professor of English in the Department of English at Tulane University

Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

. He also directs Tulane’s Creative Writing Program. Born in Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, he holds degrees from Shimer College

Shimer College

Shimer College is a very small, private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Founded by Frances Wood Shimer in 1853 in the frontier town of Mt. Carroll, Illinois, it was a women's school for most of its first century. It joined with the University of...

, 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...

 and the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

.

Career

Prior to joining Tulane, Cooley taught at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. He was the Robert Frost

Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...

 Fellow at 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 1981.

Poetry and awards

Cooley has published eight books of poetry, all with the Carnegie Mellon University Press

Carnegie Mellon University Press

Carnegie 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...

.
He received the Inspirational Professor Award in 2001 and the Newcomb Professor of the Year Award in 2003.

Poetry collections

• The Company of Strangers (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1975)
• The Room Where Summer Ends (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1979)
• Nightseasons (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1983)
• The Van Gogh Notebook (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1987)
• The Astonished Hours (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1992)
• Sacred Conversations (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1998)
• A Place Made of Starlight (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2003)
• Divine Margins (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2009)

External links

• Peter Cooley listing in The Literary Encyclopedia
• Dr. Cooley’s Faculty Page at Tulane
• Video of Peter Cooley reading from Sacred Conversations at Tulane, circa 1998
• Amusing poke at Cooley’s author picture at Poetry Snark
• “Little Immortality Poem” by Peter Cooley
• Peter Cooley author page at Virginia Quarterly Review, with links to poems