• About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
      Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
    • CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
      CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
    • WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
      WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
      Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
    • Turn it off: healing from news fatigue in the digital age
      Turn it off: healing from news fatigue in the digital age
    • Let them eat bread: the unequal effects of food price inflation
      Let them eat bread: the unequal effects of food price inflation
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Controversial
      The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Controversial
    • Lucy Dacus Brings a Minimal Yet Powerful Performance to Northeastern University
      Lucy Dacus Brings a Minimal Yet Powerful Performance to Northeastern University
    • “Glass Onion” Takes Shots at Easy Targets
      “Glass Onion” Takes Shots at Easy Targets
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
    • Books Before Boys
  • Sports and Wellness
    • Student-Athlete of October
      Student-Athlete of October
    • Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
      Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
    • The Case for Body Neutrality
      The Case for Body Neutrality
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • The Wellesley Snooze
    • Top 10 Girlbosses who aren’t alumnae, but I would totally believe you if you told me they were
      Top 10 Girlbosses who aren’t alumnae, but I would totally believe you if you told me they were
    • Wendy Wellesley’s Thanksgiving Menu
      Wendy Wellesley’s Thanksgiving Menu
    • The Snooze Awards for the Best Tanners of 2022
      The Snooze Awards for the Best Tanners of 2022
  • Miscellanea
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
      Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
    • 50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
      50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Jacqueline Sanchez News, News and FeaturesNovember 29, 2017

Professor Frank Bidart announced as winner of National Book Award for Poetry

Prof. Frank Bidart poses for a photo after his National Book Award for Poetry win Photo courtesy of Stacey Kim '19, Staff Photographer

On Nov. 15 in New York City, Frank Bidart, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and a professor of English at Wellesley, won the National Book Award for Poetry for his collection “Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965–2016.” Bidart, a prolific poet, was also the recipient of The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry’s Lifetime Recognition Award in June.

Faculty and students have received the announcement of Bidart’s win with delight. Yu Jin Ko, professor of English and chair of the department, explained that Bidart manages the extraordinary feat of being a great professor and editor in addition to being a working poet. Additionally, Ko feels that Bidart exemplifies the approach that the department tries to take when studying poetry critically and creatively: total engagement with the subject matter.

“He has a PhD in English literature, he has also edited a volume of Robert Lowell’s works, but he is himself a practicing poet who also teaches in the creative writing part of our curriculum. So he straddles both the critical side with courses on literature and the creative side with courses in creative writing, and it’s hard to think of people in this country who are as accomplished as Frank Bidart … when it comes to people who can engage with the literature as creative writers and creative thinkers,” Ko commented.

Professor of English Dan Chiasson, also a poet and critic, explained that Bidart’s work has influenced his own poetry career because it has helped to guide him towards certain ideas and values that he wants his work to embody.

“I was moved by the ideas of greatness, and of fidelity to one’s private vision, and of tenacity and truth-telling, that I found in Frank’s work. I wanted to make a body of writing that reflected those values too,” he explained.

Chiasson believes that the depth and range of Bidart’s work is truly remarkable and finds that it stands as a peer to the work of poets in generations past.

“Frank’s poetry was the first body of work by a living poet that I regarded as great, every bit as great as the American poets of the generation that preceded him. Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, his friends and mentors both, were my yardsticks at the time. In some ways, his work was even more thrilling to me than their work: it had the ambition and scope and complex sincerity of the Modernists, poets like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, who saw the whole cultural and historical picture,” he said.

Furthermore, Chiasson believes that Bidart’s poems are unique because of their capacity to make people feel. He echoed Bidart’s own speech at the National Book Awards by explaining that Bidart’s poems are “acts of survival.”

During his awards speech, Bidart stated that his poetry is influenced by his life. “I realized during the past month that I’m almost twice as old as any of the other finalists. Writing the poems was how I survived,” Bidart said. He added, “One premise of art is that anything personal, seen deeply enough, becomes general, becomes impersonal. I hope that the journeys these poems go on will help others to survive, as well.”

Bidart’s declaration that poetry has helped him to survive is not surprising considering the depth of feeling that he expresses in his poems. “Few poets you will encounter give you the impression that poetry is a means of staying alive. The stakes are total and sometimes frightening. His work is raw, sometimes disturbing; but also, charming and full of wit and sweetness and agility,” Chiasson explained.

Bridget McAuliffe ’20, a student in Bidart’s Contemporary American Poetry class, emphasized that Bidart, in addition to being a distinguished poet, is also an exceptional professor. She explained that he has influenced the way that she reads and analyzes poetry and that one of his greatest strengths as a professor is his ability to convey the beauty of spoken poetry.

“I feel so lucky to be a student in his class. He truly is a master poet, and I am learning from the best. One of my favorite parts of being in his class is hearing him read the poems from various authors. He has a way of making the imagery and content come alive … my hope is that he reads some of his poems from his newly published book,” she said.

Ko hopes that the National Book Award will help Bidart further establish his eminence among the peerage of great poets.

“The prestige he brings to the department as one of the most eminent poets in America writing today is priceless … I hope that this award, that National Book Award, will give an indication of his status,” he said.

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleWellesley Board of Trustees reduces number of subcommittees to promote productivity
Next articleStudent initiative seeks fair pay for Supplemental Instructors and Academic Success Coaches

You may also like

Historic extreme cold blasts Wellesley

Pendleton East closure displaces social science departments

Stone-Davis dining staff report mistreatment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

  • Abstract painting of various boxes meant to imply computer and phone screens Turn it off: healing from news fatigue in the digital age
  • Logos of social media apps such as Twitter, Tiktok, Netflix, Spotify, and Discord. Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
  • Red envelope that contains money to celebrate the Lunar New Year. America’s cultural appropriation is a modern form of i...
  • Five of the Best Books of 2022
  • The Tea on Wellesley Societies

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top