Hedin, Robert 1949-

(Robert Alexander Hedin)

PERSONAL: Born February 9, 1949, in Red Wing, MN; son of Raymond F. (a physician) and Elizabeth Lydia Hedin; married Carolyn A. Sweasy (a private investor), August 3, 1971; children: Alexander, Benjamin. Ethnicity: “Caucasian.” Education: Luther College, B.A., 1971; University of Alaska, M.F.A., 1973.

ADDRESSES: Home—Frontenac, MN. Office—Anderson Center, 163 Tower View Dr., P.O. Box 406, Red Wing, MN 55066.

CAREER: Sheldon Jackson College, Sitka, AK, instructor in English, 1973-75; University of Alaska, Anchorage, visiting assistant professor of creative writing, 1976-77; University of Alaska, Fairbanks, visiting assistant professor of English, 1979-80; Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, poet in residence, 1980-92; Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN, instructor, 1993-94; University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, Minneapolis, lecturer in creative writing, 1995-96; Loft Literary Center, instructor, 1996-97; Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Red Wing, MN, executive director, 1997—. Wake Forest University, visiting poet in residence, 1995-96; Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities, visiting writer in residence, 1995-96; Saint Olaf College, visiting poet in residence, 1999-2000; University of Minnesota, Edelstein-Keller Minnesota Writer of Distinction, 2001-02. North Carolina Writers’ Network, member of board of directors, 1989-91; director of Midnight Sun Writers Symposium, 1980, Mary Arden Poetry Festival, 1982-92, and Conference on Poetic Thought and Translation, 1988; writing teacher at numerous writers’ conferences, including Marshall Fest: Celebration of Rural Writers and Writing, 1992; judge of poetry contests and literary awards; gives readings from his works.

MEMBER: International PEN, Poetry Society of America, Academy of American Poets, National Writers Union.

AWARDS, HONORS: William Stafford Award, Washington Poetry Association, 1973; Branford P. Millar Memorial Prize in Poetry, Portland Review, 1976; fellow of National Endowment for the Arts, 1977, 1985, and 1994; John Atherton fellow in poetry, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 1979; New York Poetry in Public Places Award, New York State Arts Council, 1980; fellow of Yaddo Foundation, 1981, 1983, and 1987; Alaska State Humanities Commission grant, 1983; Blumenthal Writers and Readers Awards, North Carolina Writers’ Network, 1987 and 1992; poetry prize, Nebraska Review, 1988; fellow of North Carolina Arts Council, 1989; Pushcart Prize nominations, 1989, 1991, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005; winner of State Street Press national chapbook competition, 1994; Minnesota State Arts Board, poetry fellow, 1994, grant, 1997, Arts Leadership Award, 1998; artist fellow, Bush Foundation, 1998; Loft Poetry of Distinction Award, 2000; McKnight Foundation artist fellow, 2000; editor’s choice citation, Booklist, 2001; Minnesota Book Awards, 2003, 2005.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Snow Country, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 1975.

On the Day of Bulls, Brooding Heron Press (Waldron Island, WA), 1978.

At the Home-Altar, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 1979.

County O, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 1984.

Tornadoes, Ion Books (Memphis, TN), 1990.

The Old Liberators: New and Selected Poems and Translations, Holy Cow Press (Duluth, MN), 1998.

Prairie Music: A Suite of Poems and Prints, limited edition, Spanish Fly Press (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), 1999.

Winter Poems, Red Dragonfly Press (Northfield, MN), 2000.

The Steinways of Africa, Red Dragonfly Press (Northfield, MN), 2005.

Author of broadsides and pamphlets. Work represented in anthologies, including Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry, edited by Alan Pater, Monitor Book (Beverly Hills, CA), 1981, 1986, 1988, and 1991; Environment: Essence and Issue, edited by Jim Villani, Pig Iron (Youngstown, OH), 1993; Writers’ Fellowship: North Carolina Poets and Writers, edited by Alan Brilliant, Unicorn Press (Greensboro, NC), 1994; Water: The Outer Banks Anthology, edited by Steven Lautermilch, Coquina Press, 1995; and The Last Believer in Words, edited by Richard Jones, Poetry East Press, 1998. Contributor of poetry to periodicals in England, Canada, and the United States, including Poetry Now, Malahat Review, Prism International, Raven, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Greenfield Review.

EDITOR

(With David Stark) In the Dreamlight: Twenty-one Alaskan Writers, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 1984.

(With Gary Holthaus) Alaska: Reflections on Land and Spirit, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 1989.

(With Gary Holthaus) The Great Land: Reflections on Alaska, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 1994.

The Great Machines: Poems and Songs of the American Railroad, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1996.

The Zeppelin Reader: Stories, Poems, and Songs from the Age of Airships, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1998.

(With Richard Broderick) Keys to the Interior: Twenty-five Years of Great River Review, Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (Red Wing, MN), 2002.

(With Michael Waters) Perfect in Their Art: Poems on Boxing from Homer to Ali, foreword by Budd Schulberg, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 2003.

Old Glory: American War Poems from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terrorism, foreword by Walter Cronkite, Persea Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Where One Voice Ends Another Begins: 150 Years of Minnesota Poetry, Minnesota Historical Society Press (St. Paul, MN), 2007.

Editor, Great River Review, 1997—

TRANSLATOR

In Lands Where Light Has Another Color: Poems of Rolf Jacobsen (chapbook), Translation Series, Mid-American Review (Bowling Green, OH), 1990.

Night Music: Poems of Rolf Jacobsen, State Street Press (Brockport, NY), 1994.

The Bullfinch Rising from the Cherry Tree: Poems of Olav H. Hauge, Brooding Heron Press (Waldron, WA), 2000.

(With Robert Bly and Roger Greenwald) The Roads Have Come to Their End Now: Selected and Last Poems of Rolf Jacobsen, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 2001.

(With Emily Virginia Christianson) Bjorn Sortland, The Dream Factory Starring Anna & Henry (juvenile), illustrated by Lars Elling, Carolrhoda Books (Minneapolis, MN), 2001.

(With Louis Jenkins) A Bumpy Ride to the Slaughterhouse: Poems of Dag T Straumsvåg, Red Dragonfly Press (Northfield, MN), 2006.

(With Robert Bly) The Dream We Carry: Selected Poems of Olav H. Hauge, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 2008.

Contributor of translations of Swedish and Norwegian poetry to periodicals.

OTHER

Look, Poetry Society of America (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to books, including The Poetry of Philip Levine, edited by Christopher Buckley, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1990; and The Wilderness of Vision, edited by Kevin Walzer, Story Line Press, 1996. Contributor of articles and reviews to magazines, including West Coast Review, Slackwater Review, Moons and Lion Tailes, Northwest Review, View from the Loft, and Paintbrush: Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Translation.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Haines, John, Living off the Country: Essays on Poetry and Place, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1981.

Haines, John, You and I and the World, Graywolf (Port Townsend, WA), 1994.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1994, Roland Wulbert, review of The Great Land: Reflections on Alaska, p. 1503; November 1, 2003, John Green, review of Perfect in Their Art: Poems on Boxing from Homer to Ali, p. 473.

Kliatt, November, 2004, Anthony Pucci, review of Old Glory: American War Poems from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror, p. 30.

Library Journal, August, 2004, Louis McKee, review of Old Glory, p. 86.

Permafrost, spring, 1980, “An Interview with Robert Hedin.”

Publishers Weekly, April 4, 1994, review of The Great Land, p. 70.

View from the Loft, fall, 2000, “Poetry and Community: An Interview with Robert Hedin.”