Schuler, Robert 1939-

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Schuler, Robert 1939-

PERSONAL:

Born June 25, 1939, in San Mateo, CA; son of Edward (a chemical sales manager) and Georgia Ruth (a homemaker) Schuler; married Carol Forbis, September 7, 1963; children: Sally Schuler Glennan, Edward Anthony, Michael. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Stanford University, B.A. (with honors), 1961; University of California, Berkeley, M.A., 1965; University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, Ph.D., 1989. Politics: Independent. Hobbies and other interests: Art, cinema, nature, fishing, walking, music, gardening.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Menomonie, WI. Office—Department of English and Philosophy, University of Wisconsin—Stout, Menomonie, WI 54751; fax: 715-232-2093. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Menlo College, Menlo Park, CA, instructor in English, 1965-67; Shimer College, Mount Carroll, IL, instructor in humanities, 1967-77; University of Wisconsin—Stout, Menomonie, professor of English, 1978—, Hormel Professor, 1995-96. Poet; gives readings from his works, including presentations at Shimer College, College of St. Catherine, Moorhead State College, Michigan State University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Military service: U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, 1962-68.

MEMBER:

Phi Kappa Phi.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Danforth fellow at Yale University, 1969-70; grants from Illinois Arts Council, 1976, 1977, National Endowment for the Arts, 1978, Ford Foundation, 1989-90, and Government of Canada, 1992-94; Wisconsin Arts Board, poetry fellowship, 1997, grant, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Seasonings (poetry), Sun Rise Fall Down Artpress (Oshkosh, WI), 1978.

Axle of the Oak (poetry), Juniper Press (La Crosse, WI), 1978.

Where Is Dancers' Hill? (poetry), Lame Johnny Press (Hermosa, SD), 1979.

Morning Raga (poetry), Juniper Press (La Crosse, WI), 1980.

Origins (poetry), Road/House Press (Belvidere, IL), 1981.

The Red Cedar Scroll (poetry), Crow King Editions (Menomonie, WI), 1981.

Floating out of Stone (poetry), Juniper Press (La Crosse, WI), 1982.

Music for Monet (poetry), Spoon River Poetry Press (Peoria, IL), 1985.

Journeys toward the Original Mind: The Long Poems of Gary Snyder, Peter Lang (New York, NY), 1995.

Grace: A Book of Days (poetry), Wolfsong (Sturtevant, WI), 1995.

The Red Cedar Suite (poetry), photographs by Jerry Bowker, Friends of the Red Cedar Trail (Menomonie, WI), 1999.

In Search of "Green Dolphin Street," Marsh River Editions (Marshfield, WI), 2004.

Dance into Heaven, Juniper Press (St. Paul, MN), 2005.

Songs of Love, Tiger's Eye Press (Eugene, OR), 2006.

(With Janet Butler) Ekphrastic Poems by Robert Schuler and Janet Butler, Canvas Press (Delafield, WI), 2007.

Work represented in anthologies, including Inheriting the Land: Contemporary Voices from the Rural Midwest, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN); Remember That Symphonies Also Take Place in Snails: The Northeast Anthology; Wisconsin Poetry 1991; Imagining Home: Writing from the Midwest, University of Minnesota Press; and Imagining Home: Writing from the Midwest, University of Minnesota Press, 1995. Contributor of articles and poetry to more than 100 journals, including Caliban, Dacotah Territory, Hummingbird, North Coast Review, Tar River Poetry, Free Verse, Brevities, Red Weather, and Mississippi Valley Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Robert Schuler once told CA: "I would like to write a voluminous poetic novel that takes serious account of all of the wonders that enter my days. I also write about painting and music in order to get emotionally and intellectually closer to the work of art.

"I try to begin a piece of writing every day. I develop it as completely as I can. Then I rewrite it—countless times. I often recall a piece I abandoned years ago, pull it out of stacks of folders, and rework it until it seems worth sending out."

Schuler later added: "I write because what I see, hear, and read almost always inspires me. Perhaps it is my wife's smile, a cardinal, a sunset, bebop, blues, Bach, Apollinaire, Lorca, Whitman, Hopkins. I write to discover the meaning of a particular moment or experience in my life, to discover what's of the most value to me.

"Many forces influence my work: my wife, nature, music (especially jazz), painting. I feel blessed to be alive; there are so many wonders I meet each day, each moment. Today the cardinals are flaring out of the woods, and the daffodils are beginning to bloom.

"I am amazed, charmed, and inspired by the work of Rene Char, Pierre Reverdy, Hopkins, Whitman, Dickinson, Shakespeare, Richard Powers, William Gaddis, among others.

"My writing process begins when I take notes on my reading, my walks, my thoughts. I sketch out poems from the notes; I am usually working on forty or fifty poems at a time. When I'm not creating new work, I try to revise and revise and revise. For the past ten years I have been trying to create a written ‘Book of Hours,’ which contains poems on what I've seen in the natural world, birds, sunsets, animals, woodland scenes, paintings, music, love, history, politics, society. At present I have at least 1,000 poems for this collection, and I hope to build thousands more. I am constantly experimenting with ordering schemes for the poems. I am constantly experimenting with new ways of writing. Recently, I have been developing more and more short poems.

"I would have to say I am most inspired by the beauty and mystery surrounding me."