Kelly Cherry

Kelly Cherry

Born	Kelly Cherry (1940-12-21) 21 December 1940 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US
Occupation	Poet, author, essayist
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	University of Mary Washington University of Virginia University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Notable works	Twelve Women in a Country Called America: Stories A Kind of Dream Girl in a Library: On Women Writers & the Writing Life Hazard and Prospect: New and Selected Poems The Retreats of Thought
Notable awards	Poet Laureate of Virginia (2010–12)
Spouse	Burke Davis III

Kelly Cherry (born December 21, 1940) is an award winning novelist, poet, essayist, and the former Poet Laureate of Virginia (2010–2012).^[1] A resident of Halifax, Virginia, she was named the state's Poet Laureate by Governor Bob McDonnell in July 2010.^[2] She succeeded Claudia Emerson in this post (Poet Laureate of Virginia, 2008–2010).^[3]

Literary themes and styles

Award-winning poet and novelist Kelly Cherry is concerned with philosophy; with, as she explains it, "the becoming-aware of abstraction in real life--since, in order to abstract, you must have something to abstract from." Within her novels, the abstract notions of morality become her focus: "My novels deal with moral dilemmas and the shapes they create as they reveal themselves in time," she once told CA. "My poems seek out the most suitable temporal or kinetic structure for a given emotion." Writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1983 on Cherry's fiction, Mark Harris concluded that "she manages to capture, in very readable stories, the indecisiveness and mute desperation of life in the twentieth century."

From the beginning of her career, Cherry has written both formal verse and free verse. According to the citation preceding her receipt of the James G. Hanes Poetry Prize by the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 1989, "Her poetry is marked by a firm intellectual passion, a reverent desire to possess the genuine thought of our century, historical, philosophical, and scientific, and a species of powerful ironic wit which is allied to rare good humor." Reviewing Relativity, Patricia Goedicke noted in Three Rivers Poetry Journal that "her familiarity with the demands and pressures of traditional patterns has resulted...in an expansion and deepening of her poetic resources, a carefully textured over- and underlay of image, meaning and diction." Mark Harris felt that Cherry's "ability to sustain a narrative by clustering and repeating images [lends] itself to longer forms, and 'A Bird's Eye View of Einstein,' the longest poem in [Relativity], is an example of Cherry at her poetic best." Reviewing Cherry's collection, Death and Transfiguration, Patricia Gabilondo wrote in The Anglican Theological Review that "the abstract prose poem 'Requiem' that closes this book...translates personal loss into the historical and universal, providing an occasion for philosophical meditation on the mystery of suffering and the need for transcendence in a post-Holocaust world that seems to offer none. Moving through the terrors of nihilism and doubt, Cherry, in a poem that deftly alternates between the philosophically abstract and the image's graphic force, gives us an intellectually honest and deeply moving vision of our relation to each other's suffering and of God's relation to humanity's 'memory of pain'."^[4]

Biography

Early life

Kelly was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but moved to Ithaca, New York, at age 5, and Chesterfield County, Virginia, at age 9.

Early career

Virginia Poets Laureate at University of Mary Washington Reunion Day, June 3, 2011. Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda (2006-2008), Claudia Emerson (2008-2010) and Kelly Cherry (2010-2012)^[5]

Cherry graduated from the University of Mary Washington in 1961, did graduate work at the University of Virginia in Philosophy as a Du Pont Fellow, and received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After working in publishing for some years, she accepted a position at Southwest Minnesota State College. She began teaching at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1977.^[6]^[7] Kelly Cherry is the Eudora Welty Professor Emerita of English and Evjue-Bascom Professor Emerita in the Humanities^[8] at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.^[9]

Later career

She retired in 1999, after 22 years (23 in Madison), and in retirement continues to hold those titles while also holding named chairs and distinguished writer positions at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (Eminent Scholar), Colgate University, Mercer University, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Hollins University.

She has received numerous literary and academic honors. Cherry continues to give numerous public and private readings, often teaming with other notable Poets Laureate of Virginia such as Claudia Emerson and Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda.

She has published reviews widely, including for the NYT, the LA Times, the Chicago Book Review, the Minneapolis paper, the Hollins Critic, America magazine, the Women's Review of Books, the London Independent, and others.

Teaching positions in retirement

Rivers-Coffey Distinguished Chair, Appalachian State University
Louis D. Rubin, Jr., Writer-in-Residence, Hollins University
Master Artist, Atlantic Center for the Arts
Ferrol A. Sams, Jr., Distinguished Chair in English, Mercer University
NEH Visiting Professor in the Humanities, Colgate University
Eminent Scholar, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 1999-2004

While at U of Wisconsin

Wyndham Robertson Writer-in-Residence, Hollins University
Distinguished Professor, Rhodes College
Full Professor and Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, Western Washington University

Published works

Kelly Cherry has written over 25 fiction, poetry, and non-fiction books, ten chapbooks and two translations of classical plays.^[10]^[11]

Fiction

Twelve Women in a Country Called America: Stories. Press 53, May 2015. ISBN 978-1-941209-19-6
A Kind of Dream. Interlinked short stories, U. of Wisconsin Press, spring 2014. ISBN 978-0299297602
The Woman Who. Boson Books (2010), Bitingduck Press. Short stories.
My Life and Dr. Joyce Brothers. A novel in stories. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, (1990); reprinted by University of Alabama Press, (2002).
In the Wink of an Eye. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1983. ; LSU Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8071-2966-1
Sick and Full of Burning, Viking Press (1974); Ballantine (1975); reprinted by Boson Books (1995) ISBN 978-1-886420-16-8
The Lost Traveller's Dream, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (1984) ISBN 978-0-15-153617-7
Augusta Played, Houghton Mifflin, (1979), ISBN 978-0-395-27573-3; Louisiana State University Press, (1984)
We Can Still Be Friends, Soho Press, (2003) hardback; (2004) trade paper, ISBN 978-1-56947-323-8
The Society of Friends: Stories, University of Missouri Press, (1999) ISBN 978-0-8262-1243-6
Conversion, Treacle Press, (1979) ISBN 978-0-914232-28-5

Nonfiction

The Exiled Heart. LSU Press. 1991. ISBN 978-0-8071-1620-3.
The Globe and the Brain: On Place in Fiction, Talking River Publications, Lewis-Clark State College, (2006) ISBN 978-0-911015-54-6
Writing the World. University of Missouri Press. 1995. ISBN 978-0-8262-0992-4.
History, Passion, Freedom, Death, and Hope: Prose about Poetry, University of Tampa Press, (2005) ISBN 978-1-879852-26-6
The Poem: An Essay, Sandhills Press, 1999
Girl in a Library: On Women Writers and the Writing Life, BkMk Press/University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2009, ISBN 978-1-886157-66-8

Poetry

Physics for Poets: Poems. Unicorn Press, spring 2015
The Life and Death of Poetry: Poems, LSU Press, March 2013
Vectors: J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Years before the Bomb, Parallel Press, 2012
The Retreats of Thought: Poems. LSU Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0-8071-3478-8.
Death and Transfiguration. LSU Press. 1997. ISBN 978-0-8071-2212-9.
Benjamin John, March Street Press, 1993, ISBN 978-1-882983-01-8
Hazard and Prospect: New and Selected Poems. LSU Press. 2007. ISBN 978-0-8071-3262-3.
Natural Theology, Louisiana State University Press, 1988, ISBN 978-0-8071-1430-8
Lovers and Agnostics, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1995, ISBN 9780887482083
An Other Woman, Somers Rocks Press, 2000
God's Loud Hand. LSU Press. 1993. ISBN 978-0-8071-1821-4.
Songs for a Soviet Composer, Singing Wind Press, 1980, ISBN 978-0-935896-02-2
Rising Venus. LSU Press. 2002. ISBN 978-0-8071-2768-1.
Time Out of Mind, March Street Press, 1994, ISBN 978-1-882983-08-7
Relativity: A Point of View, Louisiana State University Press, 1977, ISBN 978-0-8071-0277-0
Welsh Table Talk, The Book Arts Conservatory, 2004

Other

A Kelly Cherry Reader. TX: Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2015. Intro by Fred Chappell.

 Stories, novel excerpts, essays (familiar, instructive), eight poems.

Translations

Antigone (trans.), in Sophocles, 2, ed. by Slavitt and Bovie
Octavia (trans.), in Seneca: The Tragedies, Vol. 2, ed. Slavitt and Bovie

Publications in Prize Anthologies

Best American Short Stories (1972)
Prize Stories: The O. Henry Award (1994)^[12]
The Pushcart Prize (1977)
New Stories from the South (1989, 2009)

Publications in Anthologies

Poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in over 300 anthologies.

Honors, awards and fellowships

Honors

2010–12 Poet Laureate of Virginia^[1]

Awards

2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
2015 Finalist, Library of Virginia Fiction Award for A Kind of Dream: Stories.
2015 Selected by LJ among 30 Top Indie Fiction titles.
2013 L. E. Phillabaum Poetry Award
2012 Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize
2012 Rebecca Mitchell Taramuto Short Fiction Prize for "On Familiar Terms," Blackbird at www.blackbird.vcu.edu
2011 The Bravo!Award by the Chesterfield Public Education Foundation, Chesterfield County Public Schools in Virginia, USA^[13]
2010 Finalist, People's Choice Awards, Library of Virginia, for Girl in a Library: On Women Writers & the Writing Life
2010 Director’s Visitor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
2010 The Ellen Anderson Award (first recipient) from the Poetry Society of Virginia
2009 Finalist (with Marvin Bell and Mark Jarman) for The Poets' Prize^[14]
2009 Finalist, Book of the Year Award, ForeWord Magazine, nonfiction, for Girl in a Library: On Women Writers and the Writing Life
2002 Book of the Year Award by ForeWord Magazine, Silver Prize for Poetry, for Rising Venus.^[15]
2000 Bradley Major Achievement Award (Lifetime), Council for Wisconsin Writers
2000 Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Mary Washington
2000 Dictionary of Literary Biography Award for the best volume of short stories (The Society of Friends: Stories) published in 1999^[16]
1999 Leidig Lectureship in Poetry, Emory & Henry College
1992 USIS Arts America Speaker Award (The Philippines). USIS is now called the USIA
1992, 1991 Wisconsin Arts Board New Work Awards
1991 VCCA Writers Exchange Fellow (with Edwin Honig et al.) to Russia (Leningrad, Peredelkino, Yalta)
1991 First Prize for Book-length Fiction, Council for Wisconsin Writers (for My Life and Dr. Joyce Brothers)
1991 Wisconsin Notable Author, Literary Committee of the Wisconsin Library Association^[17]
1990, 1987, 1983 PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards
1989 Hanes Poetry Prize^[3] given by the Fellowship of Southern Writers for a body of work, first recipient.
1980 First Prize for Book-length Fiction, Council for Wisconsin Writers (for Augusta Played)
1974 Canaras Award for first novel, Sick and Full of Burning

Fellowships

2009 Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, USA
2005 Fellow, Le Moulin à Nef, Auvillar, France
1997 WARF Award (Eudora Welty Chair)
1993 Bascom Award (Evjue-Bascom Chair)
1994 Hawthornden Residency Fellowship, Scotland
1991, 1988, 1984 Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowships, USA
1989, 1979 Fellow, Yaddo^[18]
1986 Fellow, The Ragdale Foundation, USA
1984 UW Chancellor's Award
1983 UW Romnes Fellowship
1979 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, USA
1978 Fellow, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, USA. Also, 1985; 1986; December–January 1987/1988; 1989; December–February 1990/1991; 2003; 2004; 2007; 2011 (Weinstein Fellow); June 13-July 14, 2013
1975 Allan Collins Fellowship, Bread Loaf, USA

References

1 2 Virginia Law and Library of Congress List of Poets Laureate of Virginia. Loc.gov. Retrieved on 2011-05-25.
↑ "BR-born poet Kelly Cherry named Virginia Poet Laureate". 2theadvocate. January 23, 2011. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
1 2 "Kelly Cherry named Va. poet laureate". The Washington Post. Associated Press. January 28, 2011. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
↑ From Gale Contemporary Authors, GALE|H1000017576. Retrieved on May 25, 2011.
↑ Virginia Poets Laureate at the University of Mary Washington Reunion Day, June 3, 2011 Video of Reading at University of Mary Washington
↑ "Biography". Kelly Cherry Books. 2011. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
↑ "1991 Notable Wisconsin Authors". Wisconsin Library Association. May 12, 2004. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
↑ University of Wisconsin–Madison ~ Evjue-Bascom Professor Emerita in the Humanities ~ Kelly Cherry. Creativewriting.wisc.edu (2011-02-14). Retrieved on 2011-05-25.
↑ University of Wisconsin–Madison Experts Guide ~ Kelly Cherry. Experts.news.wisc.edu. Retrieved on 2011-05-25.
↑ Library of Congress Online Catalog Publications by Kelly Cherry
↑ "Kelly Cherry". Writers.net. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
↑ O. Henry Award 1994 for "Not the Phil Donahue Show" The Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 1993
↑ "And the 2011 BravoAwards Winners are...". Chesterfield Observer. May 18, 2011. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
↑ R. S. Gwynn (May 2, 2009). "Ellen Bryant Voigt Wins 2009 Poets' Prize". Ablemuse.com. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
↑ ForeWord Magazine 'Book of the Year' award, Silver Prize for Poetry, 2002 book: "Rising Venus"
↑ "Awards". Kelly Cherry Books. 2010. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
↑ Notable Wisconsin Authors. Wisconsin Library Association. www.wlp.org. (pdf) Retrieved on 2011-05-25.
↑ Yaddo List of Artist Fellows ~ Writers. Yaddo.org. Retrieved on 2011-05-25.

External links

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 79376849 MusicBrainz: ee7890ed-e863-4452-a18e-8121d23f6f99

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