Biography

Born in Fresno, California

Fresno, California

Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...

, he was educated at California State University, Fresno

California State University, Fresno

California State University, Fresno, often referred to as Fresno State University and synonymously known in athletics as Fresno State , is one of the leading campuses of the California State University system, located at the northeast edge of Fresno, California, USA.The campus sits at the foot of...

, where he studied with poet Philip Levine

Philip Levine (poet)

Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...

, and at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

, receiving an M.F.A. in 1974. He is the author of nine books of poetry, including Study for the World's Body: New and Selected Poems (1994), No Heaven (1985), and Hush (1976), as well as a volume of essays, interviews and reviews entitled Where the Angels Come Toward Us. His most recent work is The Face: A Novella in Verse (2004).

His awards include the Discover/The Nation prize, the James D. Phelan Prize, the Rome Prize

Rome Prize

The Rome Prize is an American award made annually by the American Academy in Rome, through a national competition, to 15 emerging artists and to 15 scholars The Rome Prize is an American award made annually by the American Academy in Rome, through a national competition, to 15 emerging artists...

 fellowship in literature, and the O.B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize (2001), a career award for teaching and poetic achievement. He has also received several National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

 Fellowships (1976, 1984, 1994) a Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

 (1994), and a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. His work has been published in many literary magazines, including The New Yorker, Paris Review, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Antaeus, Harper's, and The New Republic, and has been widely anthologized.

St. John has taught creative writing at Oberlin College

Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 and Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

. He currently teaches in the English Department at University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 in Los Angeles, where he serves as Director of The Ph. D. Program in Literature and Creative Writing.

He is married to the poet Anna Journey

Anna Journey

Anna Journey is an American poet who was recently awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.-Life:She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, with an MFA in creative writing....

 and lives in Venice, California.

Poetry

• Hush (1976)
• The Shore (1980)
• No Heaven (1985)
• Terraces of Rain: An Italian Sketchbook (1991)
• Study For The World's Body: New and Selected Poems (1994) (National Book Award
  National Book Award
  The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
  
   Finalist)
• In the Pines: Lost Poems 1972-1997 (1999)
• The Red Leaves of Night (1999)
• Prism (2002) (with photographs by Lance Patigian)
• The Face: A Novella in Verse (2004)

Limited Editions

• For Lerida (1973)
• The Olive Grove (1980)
• A Folio of Lost Worlds (1981)
• The Man in the Yellow Gloves (1985)
• The Orange Piano (1987)

External links

• http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15375 St. John's poem "Iris" 1991
• http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/11/stjohn11.htm Cortland Review interview 1999 by Charles Harper Webb
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_3_29/ai_54133691 David St. John interviewed by Jackson Browne
  Jackson Browne
  Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
  
  , March 1999.
• Poetry.LA's video of David St. John's reading at Red Hen Press/Annenberg Community Beach House poetry series, 8/18/09.