Marilyn Nelson, Connecticut
Marilyn
Nelson has published six books of poetry, the most recent of which are
The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems and Carver: A Life
in Poems. Her honors include two Pushcart Prizes, two creative writing
fellowships from the NEA, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, and others.
The Fields of Praise won the 1998 Poets' Prize and was a finalist
for the 1997 National Book Award, the PEN Winship Award, and the Lenore
Marshall Prize. Carver won the 2001 Boston Globe/Hornbook Award,
was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and was named a Newbery
Honor Book and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Nelson, a professor of
English at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, holds an MA from the
University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from the University of Minnesota.
Appointment: 2001, five-year term
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The position doesn't come with a job title. But I'm trying to find creative and unique ways of getting people involved in poetry and making it more available to them. One unique situation involved auctioning off my services to write poems as part of a poetry reading service. My service was auctioned off to a couple in Boston who wanted a wedding poem written for their daughter as a surprise to read at her upcoming wedding. It's been a very rewarding experience. I'm also working on creating some kind of program for middle school children, and the possibility of placing poetry in doctors' and dentists' waiting rooms across the state.
–Marilyn Nelson
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