Joel Peckham
Encyclopedia
Joel B. Peckham, Jr. is an American poet
, scholar of American literature
and a creative writer
.
, Hope College
, and the Georgia Military College
. He currently teaches at the University of Cincinnati
.
He has worked as an editorial assistant for the Prairie Schooner, and is also co-founding editor of Milkwood Review.
His work has appeared in American Literature
, Ascent
, the Black Warrior Review
, The Literary Review
, The Malahat Review
, The Mississippi Quarterly
, the North American Review
, Passages North
, River Teeth, the Sycamore Review
, The Southern Review, Texas Studies in Language and Literature, Under the Sun, and Yankee Magazine
.
His work, out of the tradition of Neo-Romantic
and Open-Form 20th Century Poets such as James Dickey
and Allen Ginsberg
employs a Whitmanesque
line to explore the limits of empathy and communication in American Life.
to Jordan
, Peckham was in an auto accident that took the lives of his wife, Susan Atefat Peckham
, and his oldest son, Cyrus.
This tragedy led to his exploration of nonfiction prose as a means of expressing and critically engaging with the grief and recovery experience. His prose style is alternatively lyrical, raw, self-aware, and analytical in the tradition of writers like Viktor Frankl
and C. S. Lewis
.
He currently lives with his son, Darius, in Batavia, Ohio
.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, scholar of American literature
American literature
American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...
and a creative writer
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
.
Career
He has taught at the University of Nebraska–LincolnUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is a public research university located in the city of Lincoln in the U.S. state of Nebraska...
, Hope College
Hope College
Hope College is a medium-sized , private, residential liberal arts college located in downtown Holland, Michigan, a few miles from Lake Michigan. It was opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled...
, and the Georgia Military College
Georgia Military College
Georgia Military College is a United States Military Junior College, high school, and middle school in Milledgeville, Georgia. GMC is one of five military junior colleges that participates in the Army's Early Commissioning Program. Cadets who graduate from GMC's two-year, military science-oriented...
. He currently teaches at the University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....
.
He has worked as an editorial assistant for the Prairie Schooner, and is also co-founding editor of Milkwood Review.
His work has appeared in American Literature
American Literature (journal)
American Literature is a literary journal published by Duke University Press. It is sponsored by the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association , known as the MLA. The current editor is Priscilla Wald. The first volume of this journal was published in March 1929.Coverage...
, Ascent
Ascent (journal)
Ascent is an American literary magazine that publishes stories, poems, essays and reviews, many of which are later reprinted in annual anthologies. The journal is based at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota....
, the Black Warrior Review
Black Warrior Review
The Black Warrior Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1974 and based at the University of Alabama. Work appearing in BWR has been anthologized in the Pushcart Prize collection, The Best American Short Stories , Best American Poetry, New Stories from the South. The Spring 1978 issue...
, The Literary Review
The Literary Review
The Literary Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1957. The quarterly magazine is published internationally by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey...
, The Malahat Review
The Malahat Review
The Malahat Review is a Canadian quarterly literary magazine established in 1967. It features contemporary Canadian and international works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction as well as reviews of recently published Canadian literature...
, The Mississippi Quarterly
Mississippi Quarterly
The Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Cultures is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that mainly covers Southern history and literature. Originally entitled Social Sciences Bulletin, it was established in 1948 by John K. Bettersworth, who was associated with the journal until his death...
, the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
, Passages North
Passages North
Passages North is an American literary magazine published by the Northern Michigan University. Essays that have appeared in Passages North have been recognized in the anthology, The Best American Essays, on numerous occasions. The magazine was established in 1980. It sponsors the Waasmode Short...
, River Teeth, the Sycamore Review
Sycamore review
Sycamore Review is a major American literary journal based at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. It is well-known for its fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews with such established writers as Michael Chabon, Nick Hornby and Michael Martone...
, The Southern Review, Texas Studies in Language and Literature, Under the Sun, and Yankee Magazine
Yankee (magazine)
Yankee Magazine was founded in 1935 and is based in Dublin, New Hampshire. It is the only magazine devoted to New England through its coverage of travel, home, food, and features...
.
His work, out of the tradition of Neo-Romantic
Neo-romanticism
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism...
and Open-Form 20th Century Poets such as James Dickey
James Dickey
James Lafayette Dickey was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1966.-Early years:...
and Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
employs a Whitmanesque
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
line to explore the limits of empathy and communication in American Life.
Personal life
In February, 2004, while on a Fulbright ScholarshipFulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
to Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, Peckham was in an auto accident that took the lives of his wife, Susan Atefat Peckham
Susan Atefat Peckham
Susan Atefat-Peckham was an Iranian-American poet.-Life:She was a first generation American to Iranian parents, she grew up in France and Switzerland....
, and his oldest son, Cyrus.
This tragedy led to his exploration of nonfiction prose as a means of expressing and critically engaging with the grief and recovery experience. His prose style is alternatively lyrical, raw, self-aware, and analytical in the tradition of writers like Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D. was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy"...
and C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
.
He currently lives with his son, Darius, in Batavia, Ohio
Batavia, Ohio
Batavia is a village in and the county seat of Clermont County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,617 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Batavia is located at ....
.