Goldensohn, Barry 1937-

PERSONAL:

Born April 26, 1937, in New York, NY; son of Joseph B. (an elementary school teacher) and Shirley (a ballerina) Goldensohn; married Lorrie Sanchez Myer (a professor, poet, and critic), August 5, 1956; children: Matthew, Rachel Goldensohn Prince. Ethnicity: "Secular Jew." Education: Oberlin College, B.A., 1957; University of Wisconsin—Madison, M.A., 1959. Politics: Independent Democrat. Religion: "Secular Jew." Hobbies and other interests: Fly fishing.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Cabot, VT.

CAREER:

Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, instructor in English and philosophy, 1959-61; Kent State University, Kent, OH, instructor in English, 1961-62; Pacific High School (experimental school), Palo Alto, CA, cofounder and teacher, 1962-65; Goddard College, Plainfield, VT, teacher of literature and writing, 1965-70; University of Iowa, Iowa City, visiting associate professor at Writers Workshop, 1970-72; Goddard College, teacher of literature and writing, 1972-77; Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, associate professor, 1977-80, professor of literature and writing, 1980-82, dean of School of Humanities and Arts, 1977-81; Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, associate professor, 1982-88, professor of English, 1988-2003, and director of program in creative writing. Lecturer at other institutions, including Harvard University, Dartmouth College, University of Toronto, Vassar College, and University of Texas at Austin.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Borestone Mountain poetry award, 1968, for "Nomos, Logos"; poetry award, Vermont Arts Council, 1977; fellow in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1980; MacDowell Colony, fellow, 1982, 1984, and 1989, D. Wallace fellow, 1983; poetry award, New York Foundation for the Arts, 1985; resident fellow at Millay Colony and Djerassi Foundation, both 1989.

WRITINGS:

(Author of introduction) Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Collier Books (New York, NY), 1961.

Saint Venus Eve (poetry), Cummington Press (Omaha, NE), 1972.

Uncarving the Block (poetry), Vermont Crossroads Press (Waitsfield, VT), 1977.

The Marrano (poetry), National Poetry Foundation (Orono, ME), 1988.

Dance Music (poetry), Cummington Press (Omaha, NE), 1992.

(With wife, Lorrie Goldensohn) East Long Pond (poetry chapbook), Cummington Press (Omaha, NE), 1997.

Work represented in anthologies, including Best Poems of 1968, Borestone Foundation, 1969; Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry, Monitor Book (Beverly Hills, CA), 1981; Pushcart X: The Best of the Small Presses, 1985; New American Poets of the Nineties, David R. Godine (Boston, MA), 1991; and Poetry of the New Century, David R. Godine, 2001. Contributor of poetry, articles, and reviews to magazines, including Agni, Parnassus, New Republic, Salmagundi, Poetry, Yale Review, Slate, and Massachusetts Review. Poetry editor, Iowa Review, 1971-72.

SIDELIGHTS:

Barry Goldensohn once told CA: "I write to correct the carelessness with which I habitually speak, and to confront subjects that I never speak about because I don't know how or don't know who to say them to. I write to get things precisely right, to give voice to the inner drama and the racket of inner voices.

"I am influenced by poetry and music and the music I hear in language, particularly in Yeats, Rilke, Baudelaire, Eliot, and in too many others to list."