William Corbett

William Corbett ("Bill") (b. 1942) is an American poet, essayist, editor, and educator.

Overview

Corbett has served as a teacher in the Expository Writing program at Harvard University and as Writer-in-Residence in the Program of Writing and Humanistic Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has taught classes focusing on the craft of the personal essay and the creation of poetry. He edits for the small publisher Pressed Wafer, which specializes in poetry broadsides, chapbooks and books.

Corbett has edited the letters of James Schuyler and published two memoirs: "Philip Guston’s Late Work: A Memoir" (1994) and "Furthering My Education" (1997). He writes frequently on art, and in 1999 published a book on the sculptor John Raimondi. Corbett has been a member of the CUE Art Foundation's Advisory Council since the Foundation opened its doors in 2003. He lives in Boston’s South End and has served as the poetry editor of Grand Street. Corbett has also been a frequent contributor to local Boston newspapers, including the Boston Phoenix, for which he writes book reviews.

Corbett's work and public readings acknowledge the influence on him of jazz, Modernist and Imagist poetry (especially William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound in his later work), the group of poets in Donald Allen's seminal anthology "The New American Poetry, 1945-1960", many of them from the Black Mountain College community (most notably Allen Ginsberg, Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, his friends Robert Creeley and John Wieners, and his mentor, Charles Olson), classical Chinese poets (mainly Li Po), and French poetry of the mid-19th to early 20th centuries (especially Guillaume Apollinaire).

He is married and has two daughters.

elected publications

*"Opening Day" (Hanging Loose Press, 2008) ISBN 978-1-931236-86-7
*editor: "The Letters of James Schuyler to Frank O'Hara" (Turtle Point Press, 2005)
*editor: "Just The Thing: Selected Letters of James Schuyler 1951-1991" (Turtle Point Press, 2004) ISBN 1-885586-30-2
*"All Prose: Selected Essays and Reviews" (Zoland Books, 2001) ISBN 1-58195-102-7
*editor (with Michael Gizzi & Joseph Torra): "The Blind See Only This World: Poems for John Wieners" (Granary Books/Pressed Wafer, 2000) ISBN 1887123342
*"Boston Vermont" (Zoland Books, 1999)
*"John Raimondi" (Hudson Hills Press, 1999) ISBN 1-55595-179-1
*"New York Literary Lights" (Graywolf Press, 1998) ISBN 1-55597-272-1 (pbk.)
*"Furthering My Education" (Zoland Books, 1997) ISBN 0-944072-74-7
*"New & Selected Poems" (Zoland Books, 1995)
*"Philip Guston’s Late Work: A Memoir" (Zoland Books, 1994)
*"Literary New England: A History and Guide" (Faber & Faber, 1993)
*"Don’t Think: Look" (Zoland Books, 1991)
*"On Blue Note" (Zoland Books, 1989) ISBN 0-944072-06-2
*"Collected Poems" (National Poetry Foundation, 1984) ISBN 0-915032-45-7
*"Runaway Pond" (Applewood Books, 1982) ISBN 0-918222-26-5
*"Columbus Square Journal" (Angel Hair Books, 1976) ISBN 0-935992-25-1

External links

* [http://www.pshares.org/authors/authordetails.cfm?prmAuthorID=312 Author page at "Ploughshares] includes links to on-line reviews and poems by Corbett, and reviews of his work from past issues of Ploughshares going back to the Fall of 1971
* [http://www.shampoopoetry.com/ShampooTwentyfour/corbett.html "Pair of Jacks"] on-line poem by Corbett at "Shampoo", Issue 24
* [http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2005spring/corbett.shtml THE ROMANCE OF LIFE AND ART] an Interview with William Corbett published on-line in "Rain Taxi" (2005)
* [http://jacketmagazine.com/29/schuy-pett-corb-kern.html "On editing James Schuyler"] Corbett in conversation with Pam Brown, on-line at "Jacket Magazine"
* [http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid23931.aspx "Demon daze: Hart Crane complete"] on-line review by Corbett of "Hart Crane: Complete Poems & Selected Letters" ( The Library of America)
* [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Corbett.html Corbett Audio-files @PennSound] recordings of Corbett reading at Penn School of Design on February 3, 2005
* [http://www.charlesolson.ca/files/Corbett.htm A letter from William Corbett] This letter discusses Charles Olson & was first published in "Minutes of the Charles Olson Society #26" (June 1998)
* [http://thephoenix.com/Author.aspx?name=WILLIAM%20CORBETT William Corbett at the Boston Phoenix] Some of Corbett's contributions to the Boston Phoenix.
* [http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/06/art/wynn-kramarsky-with-william-corbett In Conversation: Wynn Kramarsky with William Corbett] transcript of an interview before an audience at the CUE Art Foundation