Donald Revell in 2013. Courtesy Alice James Books.
Donald Revell (born 1954) is an American poet, essayist, translator, and academic.
Life[]
Revell was born in Bronx, New York City. He received his B.A. from Harpur College in 1975, his M.A. from State University of New York at Binghampton in 1977, and his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1980.
Revell has taught at the Universities of Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, Alabama, Colorado, and Utah. He teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.[1]
Revell was editor of Denver Quarterly 1988–94, and has been poetry editor of Colorado Review since 1995.[2]
He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, poet Claudia Keelan, and their children.
Writing[]
In a retrospective review of Revell's work for The Nation, Stephen Burt comments on Pennyweight Windows: New & selected poems:
- Revell now seeks a poetry appropriate not only to loneliness but to anger and happiness, not only to freighted symbols but to facts, not only to doubt but to faith. What's more, he seems to have found what he seeks.[3]
In Time Magazine, Lev Grossman says of Pennywight Windows:
- it takes guts to write more poems about peace, war, God and children, but Revell's are so fresh, it's as if he's the first person ever to do it. He makes you feel how painfully near grace and redemption are at all times, and yet how unattainable."[4]
There is a theme here and in other reviews of Revell's recent books. Stephen Burt opens his review with a comment about how much Revell's work has changed in 20 years, noting the stylistic evolution, and the increasingly spiritual focus of Revell's work, which Grossman also observes in his review, and which Revell corroborates in an interview with Poets & Writers: "What's next for me? I am concerned with the governance of heaven, which is mostly silence. Living in Utah and Nevada, I take my current instruction from snow and sand. They are heavenly forms - substantial and effortless. May poems be so."[5]
Recognition[]
Revell has won numerous honors and awards for his work, beginning with his debut collection, From the Abandoned Cities, which was a National Poetry Series winner. He won the 2004 Lenore Marshall Award and is a two-time winner of the PEN Center USA Award in poetry. He has also received a Gertrude Stein Award, 2 Shestack Prizes, 2 Pushcart Prizes, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ingram Merrill and Guggenheim foundations.
Awards[]
- 2008 NEA Translation Award
- 2005 LA Times Book Prize in Poetry Finalist for Pennyweight Windows
- 2005 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
- 2004 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for My Mojave
- 2003 PEN Center USA Award for Poetry
- 1992 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry
- 1991 PEN Center USA Award for Poetry
- 1988 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
- 1985 Pushcart Prize
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- The Broken Juke. Birmingham, NY: Iris Press, 1975.
- From the Abandoned Cities. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.
- The Gaza of Winter: Poems. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1988.
- New Dark Ages. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press / Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1990.
- Erasures. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1992.
- Beautiful Shirt. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
- There Are Three: Poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press / Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1998.
- Arcady: Poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.
- My Mojave. Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2003.
- Revival House: Poems. Minneapolis, MN: Rain Taxi, 2004.
- Pennyweight Windows: New And selected poems. Alice James Books, 2005.
- A Thief of Strings. Alice James Books, 2007.
- The Bitter Withy. Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2009.
- Tantivy: New poems. Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2012.
Non-fiction[]
- Invisible Green: Selected prose. Richmond, CA: Omnidawn, 2005.
- The Art of Attention: A poet's eye. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2007.
- Essay: A critical memoir. Berkeley, CA: Omnidawn, 2015.
Translated[]
- Guillaume Apollinaire, Alcools: Poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press / Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1995.
- Guillaume Apollinaire, The Self-Dismembered Man: Selected later poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004.
- Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell. Berkeley, CA: Omnidawn, 2007.
- Jules Laforgue, Last Verses. Richmond, CA: Omnidawn, 2009.
- Arthur Rimbaud, The Illuminations. Berkeley, CA: Omnidawn, 2009.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]
Audio / video[]
Donald Revell reads "Death"
- My Mojave (CD). Olympia, WA: KAOS Radio / Evergreen State College, 2004.[6]
- The Art of Attention: A poet's eye (CD). Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2008.[6]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ UNLV - English Department Faculty
- ↑ Donald Revell b. 1954, Poetry Foundation. Web, Jan. 25, 2015.
- ↑ The Nation > The Revell Variations > by Stephen Burt > 04/24/03
- ↑ TIME > 7 Books Of Poetry Worth Curling Up With > By LEV GROSSMAN > Sunday, Jul. 10, 2005
- ↑ Poets & Writers > An Interview With Poet Donald Revell > By Nick Twemlow > 04/05/02
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Search results = au:Donald Revell, WorldCat, OCLC Online Comptuter Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 25, 2014.
External links[]
- Poems
- Donald Revell profile & 4 poems at the Academy of American Poets.
- Donald Revell b. 1954 at the Poetry Foundation.
- Prose
- Audio / video
- Video: Donald Revell Reading for Omnidawn
- Donald Revell at YouTube
- Donald Revell at Amazon.com
- About
- Donald Revell at Alice James Books
- Donald Revell at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- An interview with Donald Revell at Poets & Writers, 2002
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