Ben Howard (poet)

Ben W. Howard [ [http://www.acisweb.com/members.php?type=profiles American Conference for Irish Studies: Member Profiles] ] (born 1944 in Iowa [ [http://people.alfred.edu/~fhowardb/ Ben Howard, Professor of English at Alfred University] ] ) is an American poet, critic and essayist. He is the author of six books, including four collections of poems, a verse novella, and a critical study of modern Irish writing. For the past three decades he has contributed poems, essays, and reviews to leading journals in America and Ireland, including "Poetry", "Shenandoah", "Poetry Ireland Review", and the "Sewanee Review". He is Emeritus Professor of English and Emeritus Professor for the Performing Arts at Alfred University, where he offers private lessons in classical guitar and an Honors course in Buddhist meditation. He also conducts the [http://fallingleafsangha.blogspot.com Falling Leaf Sangha] , a Zen sitting group for students and the community.

Bibliography

* Dark Pool, Salmon Publishing, 2004 ISBN 978-1903392324
* Midcentury, Salmon Publishing, 1997 ISBN 978-1897648742
* The Pressed Melodeon: Essays on Modern Irish Writing, Story Line Press, 1996
* Lenten Anniversaries: Poems 1982-1989, Cummington Press,1990
*Anthologies:
**180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, Random House, 2005
**The POETRY Anthology: 1912-2002, Ivan R. Dee, 2002

Reviews

Reviewing "Dark Pool", Howard’s fifth collection of poems, for "Booklist", Ron Olson notes that Howard "writes just about the most natural, musical iambic line around these days, primarily in a propulsive, precise, and vocal blank verse but also in sonnets, quatrains, and unrhymed forms. It’s as seductive of the inner ear as Irish storytelling is of the outer, gently drawing attention to large, subtle meanings."

Reviewing "Midcentury" for "Irish Echo"", Michael Stephens remarks that Howard’s verse is "elegant, elegiac, casual yet moving,” and he likens the structure of the book to “a great symphony, the kind that, moment to moment, is intimate, and yet its overall reach is almost beyond human grasp."

Awards

* NEA Fellowship in Creative Writing
* Milton Dorfman Prize
* Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award

References

External links

* [http://las.alfred.edu/faculty/profile.cfm?username=fhowardb Alfred University : College of Liberal Arts and Sciences : Performing Arts : Faculty Profiles : Ben Howard]
* [http://www.nrdc.org/ National Resources Defense Council Podcast of Ben Howard reading his poem "Irondequoit, Oswego, Canisteo"]