Maurice Manning (poet)
Encyclopedia
Maurice Manning is an American
poet. His first collection of poems, Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Award, chosen by W.S. Merwin.
Maurice Manning attended Earlham College
and the University of Alabama
at Tuscaloosa
. He was formerly a professor at DePauw University
, and now teaches in the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at Indiana University
and is on the faculty of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers
.
Manning began teaching in the Indiana University
M.F.A. Program in Fall 2004.
Along with Wendell Berry
, Silas House
, Bobbie Ann Mason
, George Ella Lyon, and Anne Shelby, Manning is among the core group of Kentucky writers who have been increasingly active in the fight against mountaintop removal
mining, appearing at rallies and protests throughout the state.
His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, Washington Square, Green Mountains Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Wind, Hunger Mountains, Black Warrior Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.
His collection, "The Common Man," was one of the two finalists for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
He has held a fellowship to The Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown.
He is a Guggenheim Fellow.
Publishers Weekly:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet. His first collection of poems, Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Award, chosen by W.S. Merwin.
Maurice Manning attended Earlham College
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
and the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
at Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa is the name of two places in the United States of America:*Tuscaloosa, Alabama*Tuscaloosa County, AlabamaThere is also:*USS Tuscaloosa , U.S. Navy New Orleans-class heavy cruiser*USS Tuscaloosa , U.S...
. He was formerly a professor at DePauw University
DePauw University
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...
, and now teaches in the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
and is on the faculty of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers
Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers
The Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers is the oldest low-residency creative writing Master of Fine Arts program in the United States. Prior to the founding of this program, an MFA in creative writing was earned via standard residential graduate programs that required students to be in residence...
.
Manning began teaching in the Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
M.F.A. Program in Fall 2004.
Along with Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...
, Silas House
Silas House
Silas Dwane House is an American writer best known for his novels. He is also a music journalist, environmental activist and columnist...
, Bobbie Ann Mason
Bobbie Ann Mason
Bobbie Ann Mason is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and literary critic from Kentucky.With four siblings Mason grew up on her family's dairy farm outside of Mayfield, Kentucky. As a child she loved to read, so her parents, Wilburn and Christina Mason, always made sure she had...
, George Ella Lyon, and Anne Shelby, Manning is among the core group of Kentucky writers who have been increasingly active in the fight against mountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal mining is a form of surface mining that requires the removal of the summit or summit ridge of a mountain in order to permit easier access to the coal seams...
mining, appearing at rallies and protests throughout the state.
His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, Washington Square, Green Mountains Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Wind, Hunger Mountains, Black Warrior Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.
His collection, "The Common Man," was one of the two finalists for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
He has held a fellowship to The Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown.
He is a Guggenheim Fellow.
Works
Reviews
Not many books of poems put you in mind of Robert Penn Warren, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the brainiac whimsy of McSweeney's quarterly at the same time. In his first book, LAWRENCE BOOTH'S BOOK OF VISIONS (Yale University, cloth, $19; paper, $12), Maurice Manning displays not just terrific cunning but terrific aim -- he nails his images the way a restless boy, up in a tree with a slingshot, nails anything sentient that wanders into view.
Publishers Weekly:
equal parts carnivorous nightmare, Freudian pastoral, and deep-fired family romance.
In his third collection, Yale Younger Poets prize–winner Manning goes for a new twist on the traditional genre of pastoral poetry: he praises nature, but also engages in a postmodern conversation with a version of a higher power, which he calls "Boss."
Haunting and funny, innovative and heartening, this collection of seventy untitled, unpunctuated poems features a nameless land laborer talking to his creator, whom he calls 'boss.' Not a religious book in the traditional sense, this is rather one of questions, wonder, and, at times, sadness.
External references
- Faculty: Maurice Manning, Indiana University
- Maurice Manning, All Things Considered, NPR, April 19, 2001
- RADICAL PASTORAL: A CONVERSATION WITH MAURICE MANNING , Lyric Review, November 2006
- Quantum Cowboys and Honky Tonk Heroes: A Conversation with Maurice Manning, Sycamore Review, Summer/Fall 2002 issue, 14.2, Purdue University
- Maurice Manning’s Bedside Table: Books, Music, and Neighbors, The Southeastern Review online
- Review of Common Man at Sycamore Review.