Howard W. Robertson

) is an American poet.

Life

Robertson was born in Eugene, Oregon. [http://books.google.com/books?id=sbjbBSNoKdgC&dq=%22international+who's+who%22+poets+centre&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=XMndKeVvii&sig=Ub7jxwWIkmtKGcjy3Dy9YpYL8iU#PRA1-PA438,M1 "International Who's Who in Poetry and Poet's Encyclopedia", p. 438] ] He married Margaret Collins on August 10 1991, and has two daughters and two sons. He received a B.A. in Russian (1970) and an M.A. in Comparative Literature (1978) from the University of Oregon as well as an M.S.L.S. in Library Science (1975) from the University of Southern California. He was the Slavic Catalog Librarian and Bibliographer at the University of Oregon Library during 1975-1993. He is a past President of the Lane Literary Guild. He has been a full-time poet since 1993.

Robertson was a long-haul truck driver in the American West during 1994-1995. ["Cut to the Heart" by Barry Johnson ("The Oregonian", February 22, 2004; pp. D7-D8)] ["Ode Writer Has New Book" by Paul Denison ("The Register-Guard", March 28, 2004; p. G2).] He is a 2007 Jack Straw Writer with Jack Straw Productions in Seattle, Washington. [ [http://www.jackstraw.org/programs/writers/WritersForum/07/Writer%20pages/Howard%20W%20Robertson.html 2007 Jack Straw Writers Program - Allison Green ] ] Biographical information about Howard W. Robertson is included in an interview by American Book Award winner Matt Briggs, available in a podcast on the Jack Straw Productions website. [ [http://www.jackstraw.org/blog/ Jack Straw Literary Podcasts ] ] Robertson read his poems at the 2007 Burning Word Festival. [http://www.burningword.org/2007_burning_word_press_release.php]

Howard W. Robertson is a poet, novelist, librarian, and father. Three of his great-great-grandfathers arrived in Eugene City, Oregon, in 1853, two by covered wagon and the other by undetermined means. Mr. Robertson was born in Eugene in 1947 and by some pleasant oversight of destiny has ended up living most of his adult life there. He began writing poetry at the age of seventeen while teaching himself to type, though that was the first and last time he has ever successfully composed on a typewriter. Over the years, he has made many apparently foolish decisions motivated by the need to find his own poetic voice. Receiving two degrees from the University of Oregon and one from USC has failed to open his eyes to the palpably misguided nature of his existence; he persists in believing he is following a straight course of steady development as a writer. Visits to Mexico, Western Europe, and the Soviet Union, and time spent in Colorado and Southern California, have been important experiences for him, but the Oregon experience remains central to his work. His poems are not actually his but rather those of Lee Douglas, who resides in New Geneva, Oregon, together with a number of personages about whom Mr. Robertson and he write. The essential theme of their work is that living is a beautiful and terrible mystery that is best faced with humor, endurance, and love. ["to the fierce guard in the Assyrian Saloon"]

Works

Poetry with Robertson acquires its archaic meaning: a made thing, ποίημα, which is to say that he defines the poem very broadly."Fragments of a Manifesto" on pp. 89-91 of [http://www.thebackwaterspress.homestead.com/robertson.html "The Bricolage of Kotegaeshi"] ] Each of his poems is an ode, a fiction, an essay, an abstract painting, and a jazz recording. His poetry is a mimesis of the streaming of Being through Nonbeing. It flows continuously, pausing at times but rarely stopping. Line-breaks never halt the fluent forward progress and his poetry affirms with Aristotle that truth is most universally told through a blend of ficta and facta. Each poem is an essay of existential discovery, an enterprising foray into the discursive wilderness. Each portrays visually the drift and swirl of the things themselves and the interconnected chiaroscuro of shadowy everydayness and shimmering intensity. His work is based on the belief that reality never fails, nor does the phenomenal revelatory streaming of its representation in authentic poetry. His major influences are Heidegger, Whitman, Pushkin, Bashō, Cervantes, Montaigne, and Ovid.

His first book of poems was titled "to the fierce guard in the Assyrian Saloon" and was published by Ahsahta Press at Boise State University in 1987. [ [http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu/books/robertson.htm Howard W. Robertson . TO THE FIERCE GUARD IN THE ASSYRIAN SALOON . Ahsahta Press ] ] His second book of poems was titled "Ode to certain interstates and Other Poems" and was published by Clear Cut Press in 2003. [ [http://www.clearcutpress.com/books_01interstate.html clear cut press - ode to certain interstates and other poems by howard robertson ] ] His third book of poems was titled "The Bricolage of Kotegaeshi" and was published by The Backwaters Press in 2007. [ [http://www.thebackwaterspress.homestead.com/robertson.html The Bricolage of Kotegaeshi ] ]

List of publications

*"Jack Straw Writers Anthology" (v. 11, 2007, pp. 28-32)
* [http://academics.sru.edu/slablitmag/archives1contestwinnersandfinalists.htm "SLAB"] (issue 1, 2006, pp. 11-12)
* [http://www.squarelake.com/Five/Howard-W-Robertson.htm "Square Lake"] (no. 5, spring 2004, pp. 52-53)
*"The Clear Cut Future" (2003, pp.90-103)
*"Tor House Newsletter" (summer 2003, p. 3)
*"Hipfish" (April 2003, p. 31)
*"Emily Dickinson Awards Anthology" (2002 issue, pp. 20-21)
*"Nest" (summer 2001, pp. 129-132)
*"Literal Latte" (v. 4, no. 2, November/December 1997, p. 16)
*"Nimrod" (v. 41, no. 1, fall/winter 1997, pp. 113-120)
*"Fireweed" (v. 8, no. 4, summer 1997, pp. 20-21; v. 7, no. 4, summer 1996, pp. 13-16; v. 7, no. 3, spring 1996, p. 45; v. 4, no. 2, January 1993, p. 33; and v. 1, no. 2, January 1990, pp. 17-20)
*"Pacifica" (1996, p. 2; and 1995, pp. 3-4)
*"Ergo!" (1993, pp. 74-76)
*"Croton Review" (no. 6, 1983, p. 4)
*"Yet Another Small Magazine" (v. 2, no. 1, 1983, p. 5)
*"Yellow Silk" (no. 6, winter 1983, p. 5)
*"Negative Capability" (v. 2, no. 4, fall 1982, p. 84)
*"Pinchpenny" (v. 3, no. 2, April/May 1982, pp. 14-15)
*"Assembling" (no. 11, 1981; no. 8, 1978; and no. 7, 1977)
*"Laughing Unicorn" (v. 2, no. 1, 1980, p. 16)
*"Glassworks" (no. 3, 1978, pp. 47-49)
*"Laughing Bear" (no. 6, 1978, pp. 21-27; and no. 2/3, 1977, pp. 57-59)
*"Interstate" (no. 9, 1977, p. 89).

Awards

Robertson's poetry has won the Tor House Robinson Jeffers Prize in 2003 [ [http://www.torhouse.org/prize2003.htm Tor House Poetry Prize 2003 ] ] and the Elizabeth R. Curry Poetry Prize at Slippery Rock University in 2006. [ [http://academics.sru.edu/slablitmag/archives1contestwinnersandfinalists.htm Welcome to SlabLitMag.com - V2 ] ] He has also won the Bumbershoot Writers-in-Performance Award in 1993, the Pacifica Award in 1995, and the Literal Latte Award in 1997.

Reviews

* [http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=20506 Grant Cogswell's February 3, 2005 review of "Ode to Certain interstates and Other Poems"] in "The Stranger"
* [http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/08.11.04/rev-0433.html Novella Carpenter's August 11, 2004 review of "Ode to Certain Interstates and Other Poems"] in "metroactive"

References

External links

* [http://howardwrobertson.com/ Howard W. Roberton's website] at The Authors Guild
* [http://www.pw.org/directory/writer_detail.php?writer_id=141019 Howard W. Roberton listing] in "Poets & Writers" directory
* [http://www.laughingbear.com/lbn.asp?mode=article&subMode=3_issue_three Robertson's essay "What Is To Be Done Visually?" in "Laughing Bear Newsletter"]