Forrest Gander
Encyclopedia
Forrest Gander is an American poet, essayist, novelist, critic, and translator.
Born in the Mojave Desert
, he was raised in Virginia where he attended The College of William and Mary, majoring in geology
, a subject referenced frequently in both his poems and essays. He received an M.A.
in English from San Francisco State University
and moved to Mexico, where he began to assemble poems and translations for Mouth to Mouth: Poems by Twelve Contemporary Mexican Women, a bilingual anthology. From Mexico, he moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he worked as a printer, and then to Providence, Rhode Island. Gander is a United States Artists
Rockefeller Fellow and the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts
, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The Whiting Foundation, and the Howard Foundation. He has taught at Providence College
and Harvard University
. Currently, he is the Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor of Literary Arts and Comparative Literatures at Brown University
in Rhode Island
.
, former U.S. Poet Laureate
, calls him "a Southern poet of a relatively rare kind, a restlessly experimental writer."
The subjects of Gander's formally innovative essays range from snapping turtles to translation to literary hoaxes. His critical essays have appeared in The Nation
, Boston Review
, and The Providence Journal
.
In 2008, New Directions published As a Friend, Gander's novel of a gifted man, a land surveyor, whose impact on those around him provokes an atmosphere of intense self-examination and eroticism. In The New York Times Book Review
, Jeanette Winterson praised As a Friend as "a strange and beautiful novel.... haunting and haunted." It needs, she wrote, "to be read slowly, to be uncovered like a secret or discovered like a treasure."
Gander is a translator. Besides editing two anthologies of Mexican poetry, Gander has translated discrete volumes by Mexican poets: "Watchword" and "No Shelter" by Pura Lopez Colome" and (PEN Translation Prize Finalist) "Firefly Under the Tongue: Selected Poems of Coral Bracho." "The Night" (Princeton, 2007), the second book of his translations, with Kent Johnson, of Bolivian poet Jaime Saenz, received a PEN Translation Award. Gander's critically acclaimed translations of the Chilean Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda are included in "The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems" (City Lights, 2004)
Chapbooks
Novels
Collaborative Works
Essay Collections
In Translation
Translations
Anthologies Edited
Born in the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
, he was raised in Virginia where he attended The College of William and Mary, majoring in geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, a subject referenced frequently in both his poems and essays. He received an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in English from San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
and moved to Mexico, where he began to assemble poems and translations for Mouth to Mouth: Poems by Twelve Contemporary Mexican Women, a bilingual anthology. From Mexico, he moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he worked as a printer, and then to Providence, Rhode Island. Gander is a United States Artists
United States Artists
United States Artists is an independent nonprofit and nongovernmental philanthropic organization based in Los Angeles, California and dedicated to supporting the work of living American artists by the granting of cash awards, called USA Fellowships...
Rockefeller Fellow and the recipient of fellowships from the 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...
, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The Whiting Foundation, and the Howard Foundation. He has taught at Providence College
Providence College
Providence College is a private, coeducational, Catholic university located about two miles west of downtown Providence, Rhode Island, United States, the state's capital city. With a 2010–2011 enrollment of 3,850 undergraduate students and 735 graduate students, the College specializes in academic...
and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Currently, he is the Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor of Literary Arts and Comparative Literatures at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
.
Writing and Translation
His poetry is lyrical, but often complex rhythmically and structurally. Critic Karla Huston, writing in "Library Journal," notes that, "Owing to the poems' placement on the page and the near absence of punctuation, the reader is propelled through the verse, left with a sense of urgency and awe." Because of the frequency and particularity of Gander's references to the Virginia landscape, Robert HassRobert Hass
Robert L. Hass is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He was awarded the 2007 National Book Award and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Time and Materials.-Life:...
, former U.S. Poet Laureate
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
, calls him "a Southern poet of a relatively rare kind, a restlessly experimental writer."
The subjects of Gander's formally innovative essays range from snapping turtles to translation to literary hoaxes. His critical essays have appeared in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, Boston Review
Boston Review
Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
, and The Providence Journal
The Providence Journal
The Providence Journal, nicknamed the ProJo, is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper, first published in 1829 and the oldest continuously-published daily newspaper in the United States, was purchased...
.
In 2008, New Directions published As a Friend, Gander's novel of a gifted man, a land surveyor, whose impact on those around him provokes an atmosphere of intense self-examination and eroticism. In The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
, Jeanette Winterson praised As a Friend as "a strange and beautiful novel.... haunting and haunted." It needs, she wrote, "to be read slowly, to be uncovered like a secret or discovered like a treasure."
Gander is a translator. Besides editing two anthologies of Mexican poetry, Gander has translated discrete volumes by Mexican poets: "Watchword" and "No Shelter" by Pura Lopez Colome" and (PEN Translation Prize Finalist) "Firefly Under the Tongue: Selected Poems of Coral Bracho." "The Night" (Princeton, 2007), the second book of his translations, with Kent Johnson, of Bolivian poet Jaime Saenz, received a PEN Translation Award. Gander's critically acclaimed translations of the Chilean Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda are included in "The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems" (City Lights, 2004)
Selected publications
Full-Length Poetry Collections- Eye Against Eye (New Directions, 2005)
- The Blue Rock Collection (Salt PublishingSalt PublishingSalt Publishing is an independent publisher whose origins date back to 1990 when poet John Kinsella launched Salt Magazine in Western Australia. The journal rapidly developed an international reputation as a leading publisher of new poetry and poetics...
, 2004) - Torn Awake (New Directions, 2001)
- Science & Steepleflower (New Directions, 1998)
- Deeds of Utmost Kindness (University Press of New EnglandUniversity Press of New EnglandThe University Press of New England , located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, is a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College , the University of New Hampshire, and Northeastern University...
, 1994) - Lynchburg (University of Pittsburgh PressUniversity of Pittsburgh PressThe University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States....
, 1993) - Rush to the Lake (Alice James BooksAlice James BooksAlice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington.- History and mission :...
, 1988)
Chapbooks
- Eggplants and Lotus Root (Burning Deck Books, 1991)
Novels
- As a Friend (New Directions, 2008)
Collaborative Works
- Twelve X 12:00 (The Nederlands, 2003, collaboration with artist Tjibbe Hooghiemstra)
- Sound of Summer Running (Nazraeli Press, 2005, collaboration with photographer Ray Meeks)
Essay Collections
- A Faithful Existence: Reading, Memory and Transcendence (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005)
In Translation
- Als es dich gab. Roman (luxbooks, Wiesbaden, 2010)
Translations
- Firefly Under the Tongue: Selected Poems of Coral Bracho (New Directions, 2008)
- The Night: A Poem by Jaime Saenz (Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
, 2007, translation with Kent Johnson) - No Shelter: Selected Poems of Pura Lopez Colome (Graywolf PressGraywolf PressGraywolf Press is an independent, non-profit publisher located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Founded on a dedication to the creation and promotion of thoughtful and imaginative contemporary literature essential to a vital and diverse culture, Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.Now...
, 2002) - Immanent Visitor: Selected Poems of Jaime Saenz (University of California PressUniversity of California PressUniversity of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, 2002, with Kent Johnson)
Anthologies Edited
- Mouth to Mouth: Poems by Twelve Contemporary Mexican Women (Milkweed EditionsMilkweed EditionsMilkweed Editions is an independent, non-profit publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Milkweed's goal is to make a positive impact on society through the transformative art of literature. Milkweed is sometimes called the largest independent, non-profit literary publisher in the United...
, 1993)
Awards and honors
- United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, 2008
- Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, 2008
- Howard Foundation Award, 2005
- Pen Translation Fund Award, 2004
- Pushcart Prize, 2000
- Jessica Nobel Maxwell Memorial Prize (from American Poetry Review, 1998)
- Whiting Writer’s Award, 1997
- Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative North American Poetry (1997, 1993)
- Fund for Poetry Award, 1994
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry (1989, 2001)
External links
- Author Website
- Brown University > Forrest Gander Resume
- Brown University > Comparatative Literature Faculty > Forrest Gander
- Audio: Gander reading at the Key West Literary Seminar in 2003
- Author Bio: Jacket Magazine
- Essay: The Nymph Stick Insect: Observations on Science, Poetry, and Creation > Author Website
- Poem: Conjunctions Issue 44/Spring 2005 > Mission Thief > By Forrest Gander
- Review: Great American Pinup > Review of Eye Against Eye > By Forrest Gander
- Audio: The East Village Poetry Web > Forrest Gander Reading Three Poems
- Video: Gander Reading and Lecture at U. of Chicago, 2006