Tom McKeown (poet)

Tom McKeown
Born Thomas Shanks McKeown
(1937-09-29)29 September 1937
Evanston, Illinois, United States
Occupation Poet, educator
Nationality United States
Education AM in English, MFA in writing
Alma mater University of Michigan
Vermont College
Period 1969-present
Notable awards Hopwood Award (1968), Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Grant (1972, 1975)

Thomas Shanks McKeown (born 29 September 1937) is an American poet. He published his first poetry chapbooks in the late 1960s and continued to develop his reputation as a poet of surrealist sensibilities throughout the 1970s, publishing in major magazines such as The New Yorker.

Biography

McKeown was born in Evanston, Illinois, to Thomas Shanks McKeown, Sr., and Ruth (Fordyce) McKeown. He attended the University of Michigan, where he earned an A.B. in English in 1961 and an A.M. in 1962. He also attended Northwestern University in the summer of 1961. [1] He earned an MFA in writing at Vermont College in 1989.

After graduation from the University of Michigan, McKeown went immediately into teaching, serving as a writing instructor at Alpena Community College, Michigan, from 1962 to 1964, and then at Wisconsin State University-Oshkosh, from 1964 to 1968. His growing fame as a poet enabled him to gain the post of poet-in-residence at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, 1968–74, and University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, 1976–81. He then served as professor of English at Savannah College of Art and Design, 1982–83, and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 1983–87. He once again won a position as poet-in-residence in 1989 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, serving in this capacity until 1994. Since then, he has taught poetry tutorials for correspondence schools and independently.[1]

In the late 1970s, McKeown collaborated with composer Harold Blumenfeld, contributing a cycle of poems, Circle of the Eye, to a composition for voice and piano. The piece was performed at Carnegie Hall.[2]

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

  • McKeown, Tom (1967). Alewife Summer. Road Runner Press.
  • The Winds of the Calendar (1969) Road Runner Press
  • Drunk All Afternoon (1969) Abraxas Press
  • Last Thoughts (1969) Abraxas Press
  • The Cloud Keeper (1972) The Seafort Press (Dublin)
  • The Luminous Revolver (1973) The Sumac Press
  • The House of Water: Early Poems (1974) The Basilisk Press
  • Driving to New Mexico (1974) Sunstone Press
  • Maya/Dreams (1977) Wisconsin Review Press
  • Certain Minutes: Poems (1978) Scopcraeft Press
  • Invitation of the Mirrors (1985) Wisconsin Review Press
  • Three Hundred Tigers (1994) Zephyr Pub Corp

Vocal score

  • Blumenfeld, Harold and Tom McKeown, Circle of the Eye : eleven poems by Tom McKeown for medium voice and piano (1982) King's Crown Music Press

Prose

  • Write to Win: A Business Writer's Handbook (1987) Clear Communications Press
  • Powerful Business Writing (1992) Writer's Digest Books

Honors and awards

  • Wisconsin Arts Council Fellowship (1980)
  • Yaddo Grant (1973, 1975)
  • Wurlitzer Foundation Grant (1972, 1975)
  • Avery Hopwood Award (Summer), University of Michigan (1968)

References

  1. 1 2 "Encyclopedia.com". Encyclopedia.com. 2001. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  2. ↑ Minnesota Review 13 (1), 24. Duke University Press, 1979. Print.
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