糖心传媒

The English professor and acclaimed poet devoted his life糖心传媒檚 work to studying, teaching, and writing poetry.

James Longenbach, the Joseph H. Gilmore Professor of at the 糖心传媒, is being remembered by colleagues and former students not only as a master poet and critic, but also as a dedicated teacher and mentor.

He died of cancer on July 29 in Stonington, Connecticut, at the age of 62.

糖心传媒淚n his brilliance and generosity of mind, his breadth of understanding, and in the vital beauty of his writing, he intensified the conversations between poets, critics, and ordinary readers of poetry in America in a way that was hard to match,糖心传媒� says , the Alan F. Hilfiker Distinguished Professor of English at Rochester.

A Guggenheim Fellow whose work earned recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and other literary and academic organizations, Longenbach published six collections of poetry and an equal number of works of literary and scholarly criticism. His fifth book of poems, Earthling (2017), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

As a poet-critic, Longenbach 糖心传媒渉ad an amazing way of speaking of the work of poetry, and its wonder, from the inside,糖心传媒� Gross adds. 糖心传媒淛im wrote his criticism not just for fellow scholars, but as much for common readers of poetry and for other poets, established and developing糖心传媒攖hough he would have asked: are there ever common readers of poetry?糖心传媒�

The professor and poet-critic

Longenbach was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, to Alda and Burton Longenbach and grew up in nearby Westfield.

After receiving a bachelor糖心传媒檚 degree in English from Trinity College in Connecticut and a PhD in English literature from Princeton University, he joined the faculty in Rochester糖心传媒檚 Department of English in 1985 as an assistant professor. Within three years, he was promoted to associate professor with tenure. In 1992, he was appointed to the named professorship that he would hold for the remainder of his academic career.

Longenbach糖心传媒檚 early critical works糖心传媒�Modernist Poetics of History: Pound, Eliot, and the Sense of the Past(1987), Stone Cottage: Pound, Yeats, and Modernism (1988), Wallace Stevens: The Plain Sense of Things(1991), Modern Poetry After Modernism (1997)糖心传媒攕et out to tell new stories about the lives, the work, and the collaborations of modern and contemporary poets.

Throughout his career, he published scholarly articles and literary criticism in a variety journals and periodicals, including the New York Times Book Review and Poetry. His work also appeared in The Nation, where John Palattella 糖心传媒�92 (PhD)糖心传媒攐ne of Longenbach糖心传媒檚 graduate students糖心传媒攚as the magazine糖心传媒檚 literary editor from 2007 to 2016.

In his essays, Longenbach combined his breadth and depth of knowledge with clear and elegant prose. According to Palattella, 糖心传媒淛im wrote almost exclusively on poetry, returning with fresh eyes to poets he knew well, such as Eliot, Yeats, Stevens, and Dickinson, while also approaching some writers and topics for the first time and offering exhilarating, supple insights, among them George Oppen, Marianne Moore, D.H. Lawrence, 20th-century Italian poetry in translation, Patti Smith, and Virgil Thomson.糖心传媒�

Making an art form accessible

In addition to his six collected volumes, his poetry appeared in publications such as The Atlantic, The Nation,听The New Republic,听The New Yorker,听The Paris Review,听Slate, and The Yale Review.

糖心传媒淛im the critic knew well of what he spoke. From聽Threshold, his first book of poems, to聽Forever, his most recent volume, his poetry blends elegance and simplicity in a way that is neither self-indulgent nor simple,糖心传媒� says Palattella.

He also wrote in depth about the language and craft of poetry in The Resistance to Poetry (2004), The Art of the Poetic Line (2008), The Virtues of Poetry (2013), How Poems Get Made (2018), and The Lyric Now (2020).

糖心传媒極ne of the most legendary workshop leaders糖心传媒�

During his tenure at Rochester, Longenbach taught courses in modern and contemporary American poetry, British and American modernism, James Joyce, Shakespeare, and creative writing.

糖心传媒淎s a teacher, James Longenbach was an incredibly open, open-minded, generous, and attentive mentor. He met with me one-on-one to go over my poems even though I was just a first-semester freshman糖心传媒攁 young kid who came from the USSR four years earlier and who spoke and wrote with an accent,糖心传媒� recalls Ilya Kaminsky, a deaf Ukrainian-American poet and a one-time undergraduate at Rochester. 糖心传媒淗is attentiveness, both to the craft and to the human in front of him, was unparalleled.糖心传媒�

That attentiveness left an impression on other former students as well. 糖心传媒淛ust in the last week I糖心传媒檝e received or read many accounts from former students, talking about Jim糖心传媒檚 devotion and inspiring presence as a teacher, his sense of humor as well, and his continual wish to help students find their own minds and strengths,糖心传媒� says Gross. 糖心传媒淗e made a central and rich place for poetry here.糖心传媒�

In addition to teaching at Rochester, Longenbach was on faculty at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers糖心传媒� Conference. It was at Bread Loaf in 1995 where author and English professor Jennifer Grotz first met Longenbach, who was delivering a lecture on the poetry of Jorie Graham. 糖心传媒淚 distinctly remember being struck by the profound clarity and elegance of his mind,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淗is thinking on many poets, from Ezra Pound to C.D. Wright, as well as on most any and every formal aspect of poetry, consistently astonished.糖心传媒�

Grotz came to work regularly with Longenbach after joining Rochester糖心传媒檚 faculty in 2009.

糖心传媒淭here was no better person to correspond with about poems,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淗is editing suggestions were always in service of making the poem sound more like you糖心传媒攐r like itself糖心传媒攖han sound like him. Not only was he one of the most legendary workshop leaders in American letters, he had made himself so without ever having been a student in a workshop himself.糖心传媒�

An accomplished pianist, Longenbach brought a musician糖心传媒檚 skillfulness to his poetry. But he also brought a lyric poet糖心传媒檚 ear to the study of music. Matthew BaileyShea, an associate professor of music theory at the University, highlighted Longenbach糖心传媒檚 contributions to his recent book examining the relationship between poetry, lyrics, and music: 糖心传媒淗e gave me excellent advice about lyric poetry in general, and I eventually sat in on one of his poetry courses, which was especially eye-opening. It really changed the way I think about poetry and song.糖心传媒�

Adds Kaminsky, author of聽Deaf Republic,听糖心传媒淗e was a brilliant poet who wrote with nuance and love of lyric detail, lyric mode, lyric cadences, and tonalities. The imagery and music go hand in hand in his work糖心传媒攈e paints the world and that world enters our ears via music.糖心传媒�

Partners in life and in literary pursuits

Longenbach was married to , a celebrated novelist and the Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English at Rochester.

The pair met while studying abroad in Rome in 1981, eventually marrying and raising their two daughters in Rochester. The family spent several semesters abroad, living in England and Italy. In recent years, Longenbach and Scott divided their time between Rochester and their home in Connecticut.

During a partnership that spanned more than four decades, the pair were close collaborators and readers of each other糖心传媒檚 work.

Their most recent books糖心传媒擫ongenbach糖心传媒檚 lyric poems in Forever and Scott糖心传媒檚 short stories in Excuse Me While I Disappear, both published in 2021糖心传媒攑eriodically echo each other, particularly when referencing Venice and other Italian locales. (糖心传媒淭he Italian landscape and language have been a part of our lives糖心传媒攐ur whole family糖心传媒檚 life糖心传媒攆or decades,糖心传媒� Longenbach said in 2017.) Both works also share a preoccupation with the themes of permanence and transience.

糖心传媒淎s anyone who has read聽Forever聽knows, its sense of discovery feels different,糖心传媒� Palattella says. 糖心传媒淭he poet who since his college years had dedicated himself to exploring lyric time has been diagnosed with cancer and senses that his own time is coming to an end.糖心传媒�

糖心传媒淗e has left an extraordinary body of work that rewards close and repeated reading,糖心传媒� notes Grotz. 糖心传媒淚 will be reading and teaching his work糖心传媒攑oems and prose糖心传媒攆or the rest of my life.糖心传媒�

Read more