Robert Hass - Wikipedia Robert Hass From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search American poet This article is about the American poet. For the literary critic, see Robert Bernard Hass. Robert Hass Born (1941-03-01) March 1, 1941 (age 79) Nationality American Alma mater Saint Mary's College of California Genre poetry Notable works Time and Materials: Poems 1997–2005.; "Meditation at Lagunitas" Notable awards Poet Laureate of the United States National Book Award Pulitzer Prize for Poetry MacArthur Fellowship Spouse Brenda Hillman Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997.[1] He won the 2007 National Book Award[2] and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize[3] for the collection Time and Materials: Poems 1997–2005.[4] In 2014 he was awarded the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets.[5] Contents 1 Life 2 Career 3 Poetry 4 Activism 5 Published works 5.1 Poetry 5.2 Criticism 5.3 Translations 6 Awards & Honors 7 Notes 8 External links Life[edit] Hass's works are well known for their West Coast subjects and attitudes. He was born in San Francisco and grew up in San Rafael.[4] He grew up with an alcoholic mother, a major topic in the 1996 poem collection Sun Under Wood. His older brother encouraged him to dedicate himself to his writing. Awestruck by Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg, among others in the 1950s Bay Area poetry scene, Hass entertained the idea of becoming a beatnik. He graduated from Marin Catholic High School in 1958. When the area became influenced by East Asian literary techniques, such as haiku, Hass took many of these influences up in his poetry. He has been hailed as "a lyrical virtuoso who is able to turn even cooking recipes into poetry".[6] Hass is married to the poet and antiwar activist Brenda Hillman, who is a professor at Saint Mary's College of California.[4] Career[edit] Hass graduated from Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California in 1963, and received his MA and Ph.D. in English from Stanford University in 1965 and 1971 respectively.[1] At Stanford he studied with the poet and critic Yvor Winters, whose ideas influenced his later writing and thinking. His Stanford classmates included the poets Robert Pinsky, John Matthias, and James McMichael. Hass taught literature and writing at the University at Buffalo in 1967. From 1971 to 1989, he taught at his alma mater St. Mary's, at which time he transferred to the faculty of University of California, Berkeley. He has been a visiting faculty member in the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa on several occasions, and was a panelist at the Workshop's 75th anniversary celebration in June 2011. From 1995 to 1997, during Hass's two terms as the US Poet Laureate (Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress), he became a champion of literacy, poetry, and ecological awareness. He criss-crossed the country lecturing in places as diverse as corporate boardrooms and for civic groups, or as he has said, "places where poets don't go." After his self-described "act of citizenship," he wrote a weekly column on poetry in the Washington Post until 2000. He serves as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, was a trustee of the Griffin Poetry Prize (now trustee emeritus), and works actively for literacy and the environment. As major influences on his poetry, Hass cites Beat poet Lew Welch, and has praised the slogan "Raid Kills Bugs Dead," which Welch crafted while working for an advertising firm.[7][8] Additionally, he has named Chilean Pablo Neruda, Peruvian César Vallejo, and Polish poets Zbigniew Herbert, Wisława Szymborska, and Czesław Miłosz, whom he regards as the five most important poets of the last 50 years. While at Berkeley, Hass spent 15 to 20 years translating the poetry of Miłosz, his fellow Berkeley professor and neighbor,[4] as part of a team with Robert Pinsky and Miłosz. In 1999 Hass appeared in Wildflowers, the debut film by director Melissa Painter. In the film Hass plays The Poet, a writer who is dying of an unnamed chronic illness. Excerpts from his poetry are included in the script, primarily read by Hass and actress Daryl Hannah. Poetry[edit] Hass's poems tend to vary in structure as he alternates between prose-like blocks and free verse. His poems have been said to have a stylistic clarity, seen in his simple, clear language and precise imagery. His collection "Praise" features themes of seasons, nature, location, and transformation, with a running motif of blackberries. Poet Stanley Kunitz said of Hass's work, "Reading a poem by Robert Hass is like stepping into the ocean when the temperature of the water is not much different from that of the air. You scarcely know, until you feel the undertow tug at you, that you have entered into another element."[9] The January 2017 "Gift Horse" episode[10] of the TV series "Madam Secretary" alludes to Hass. At a presidential inauguration, the poet laureate character ("Roland Hobbs") recites a poem that describes "the privilege of being", an allusion to Hass's 1999 poem of that title.[11] Activism[edit] Hass has been actively engaged in promoting ecoliteracy. In 1995 he began working with writer and environmentalist Pamela Michael on a program that encourages "children to make art and poetry about their watersheds" and fosters interdisciplinary environmental education.[12] In April 1996, when he was poet laureate, he organized a 6-day conference at the Library of Congress that brought together American nature writers to celebrate writing, the natural world and community.[13] His watershed program expanded into the non-profit organization River of Words.[14] River of Words provides tools for teaching ecoliteracy and holds an annual poetry and art contest for children and teens. On November 9, 2011, while participating in an Occupy movement demonstration at UC Berkeley called Occupy Cal, a police officer hit Hass in the ribs with a baton. Another officer shoved his wife to the ground.[15] Hass wrote about their experience in a November 19, 2011, New York Times opinion piece, "Poet-Bashing Police." Published works[edit] Poetry[edit] Field Guide, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973, ISBN 0-300-01650-6 Praise, New York: Ecco Press, 1979, ISBN 0-912946-61-X; Manchester, UK: Carcanet Press, 1981, ISBN 978-0-85635-356-7 Human Wishes, New York: Ecco Press, 1989, ISBN 0-88001-211-0 Sun Under Wood, Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1996, ISBN 0-88001-468-7 Time and Materials: Poems 1997–2005, Ecco Press, 2007, ISBN 0-06-134960-7 The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems, Ecco Press, 2010, ISBN 0-06-192382-6; Tarset, UK: Bloodaxe Books, ISBN 978-1-85224-897-0 Summer Snow: New Poems, Ecco Press, 2020, ISBN 978-0062950024 Criticism[edit] "James Wright", in The Pure Clear Word: Essays on the poetry of James Wright, Dave Smith (editor), Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982, ISBN 0-252-00876-6 Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry. Ecco Press, 1984, ISBN 0-88001-045-2 "Edward Taylor: What was he up to?", in Green Thoughts, Green Shades: Essays by contemporary poets on the early modern lyric, Jonathan F. S. Post (editor), Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, ISBN 0-520-21455-2 Now and Then: The Poet's Choice Columns, 1997–2000. Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007, ISBN 1-59376-146-5 What Light Can Do: Essays on Art, Imagination, and the Natural World. Ecco Press, 2012. ISBN 0061923923 A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry. Ecco Press, 2017. ISBN 9780062332424 Translations[edit] The Separate Notebooks, Czesław Miłosz (translated by Robert Hass and Robert Pinsky with the author and Renata Gorczynski), New York: Ecco Press, 1984, ISBN 0-88001-031-2 Unattainable Earth, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), New York: Ecco Press, 1986, ISBN 0-88001-098-3 Provinces, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1991, ISBN 0-88001-321-4 The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson, and Issa, Bashō Matsuo, Buson Yosano, Issa Kobayashi (edited with verse translation by Robert Hass), Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1994, ISBN 0-88001-372-9 Facing the River: new poems, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995, ISBN 0-88001-404-0 Road-Side Dog, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998, ISBN 0-374-25129-0 Treatise on Poetry, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), New York: Ecco Press, 2001, ISBN 0-06-018524-4 Second Space: new poems, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), New York: Ecco Press, 2004, ISBN 0-06-074566-5 The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems, includes five translations by Robert Hass, San Francisco: City Lights 2004, ISBN 0-87286-428-6 Awards & Honors[edit] The Frost Place poet in residence (1978) Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, 1972, for Field Guide William Carlos Williams Award, 1979, for Praise National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, 1984, for Twentieth Century Pleasures MacArthur Fellowship, 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, 1996, for Sun Under Wood National Book Award, Poetry, 2007 for Time and Materials[2] Pulitzer Prize, Poetry, 2008 (a split award) for Time and Materials[3] Manhae Prize co-winner, 2009 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, What Light Can Do[16] Notes[edit] ^ a b "Robert Hass- Poets.org – Poetry, Poems, Bios & More". Poets.org. Retrieved 2014-01-21. ^ a b "National Book Awards – 2007". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-08. (With acceptance speech, interview, and other materials; and essay by Evie Shockley from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) ^ a b "Fiction". Past winners & finalists by category. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-04-08. ^ a b c d Goldman, Justin. "Poetic Justice – Robert Hass" Diablo Magazine, July 2008. ^ "Robert Hass Awarded the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets". Poetryfoundation.org. 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2014-09-01. ^ Andreas Dorschel, 'Zwischen Wein und Wüste', in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Nr. 260 (11. November 2005), p. 16. ^ "Robert Hass | Poetry Everywhere". PBS. 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2014-01-21. ^ "Robert Hass: Online Interviews". English.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2014-01-21. ^ "Robert Hass". ^ "03x11 – Gift Horse – Madam Secretary Transcripts – Forever Dreaming". ^ "Privilege of Being, By Robert Hass". 14 February 1999 – via LA Times. ^ "Robert Hass: Eight years of activism, writing, and reflection". The Berkeleyan. November 8, 2007. Retrieved November 27, 2011. ^ "River of Words: History". ^ "River Of Words". www.riverofwords.org. ^ Hass, Robert (November 19, 2011). "Poet-Bashing Police". The New York Times. Retrieved November 27, 2011. ^ Carolyn Kellogg (August 14, 2013). "Jacket Copy: PEN announces winners of its 2013 awards". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 14, 2013. External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Hass. Poems by Robert Hass and biography at PoetryFoundation.org Hass's Academy of American Poets page Works by or about Robert Hass in libraries (WorldCat catalog) "Robert Hass: Online Interviews", Sarah Pollock, Modern American Poetry Hass pays tribute to Griffin Trust Lifetime Recognition Award recipient Robin Blaser (audio clip) Two poems (Meditations at Lagunitas and Misery and Splendor) from the Robert Hass page, courtesy of UIUC. "The Bard of Berkeley," Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2009 'Nature's Imaginative Beauty', review of The Apple Trees at Olema in the Oxonian Review 'The Temptations of Art', review of "The Apple Trees at Olema" in The New Republic v t e Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2001–2025) Stephen Dunn (2001) Carl Dennis (2002) Paul Muldoon (2003) Franz Wright (2004) Ted Kooser (2005) Claudia Emerson (2006) Natasha Trethewey (2007) Robert Hass / Philip Schultz (2008) W. S. Merwin (2009) Rae Armantrout (2010) Kay Ryan (2011) Tracy K. Smith (2012) Sharon Olds (2013) Vijay Seshadri (2014) Gregory Pardlo (2015) Peter Balakian (2016) Tyehimba Jess (2017) Frank Bidart (2018) Forrest Gander (2019) Jericho Brown (2020) Complete list (1922–1950) (1951–1975) (1976–2000) (2001–2025) v t e Poets Laureate / Consultants in Poetry to the Library of Congress Joseph Auslander (1937) Allen Tate (1943) Robert Penn Warren (1944) Louise Bogan (1945) Karl Shapiro (1946) Robert Lowell (1947) Léonie Adams (1948) Elizabeth Bishop (1949) Conrad Aiken (1950) William Carlos Williams (1952) Randall Jarrell (1956) Robert Frost (1958) Richard Eberhart (1959) Louis Untermeyer (1961) Howard Nemerov (1963) Reed Whittemore (1964) Stephen Spender (1965) James Dickey (1966) William Jay Smith (1968) William Stafford (1970) Josephine Jacobsen (1971) Daniel Hoffman (1973) Stanley Kunitz (1974) Robert Hayden (1976) William Meredith (1978) Maxine Kumin (1981) Anthony Hecht (1982) Reed Whittemore (1984) Robert Fitzgerald (1984) Gwendolyn Brooks (1985) Robert Penn Warren (1986) Richard Wilbur (1987) Howard Nemerov (1988) Mark Strand (1990) Joseph Brodsky (1991) Mona Van Duyn (1992) Rita Dove (1993) Robert Hass (1995) Robert Pinsky (1997) Rita Dove, Louise Glück & W. S. Merwin (1999) Stanley Kunitz (2000) Billy Collins (2001) Louise Glück (2003) Ted Kooser (2004) Donald Hall (2006) Charles Simic (2007) Kay Ryan (2008–2010) W. S. Merwin (2010–2011) Philip Levine (2011–2012) Natasha Trethewey (2012–2014) Charles Wright (2014–2015) Juan Felipe Herrera (2015–2017) Tracy K. Smith (2017–2019) Joy Harjo (2019–present) Authority control BNE: XX4764233 BNF: cb12034982p (data) GND: 122259769 ISNI: 0000 0001 1557 7177 LCCN: n83039272 NKC: utb2009546673 NTA: 068562616 PLWABN: 9810680013405606 SNAC: w6p10pb4 SUDOC: 028532651 VIAF: 26975 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n83039272 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Hass&oldid=998372648" Categories: 1941 births Living people American male poets American Poets Laureate MacArthur Fellows Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters National Book Award winners Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Saint Mary's College of California alumni University at Buffalo alumni Yale Younger Poets winners PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award winners 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century translators 21st-century American translators 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Translators of Pablo Neruda Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Commons category link from Wikidata Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages تۆرکجه Deutsch Español Esperanto فارسی Français עברית Kiswahili مصرى Português Edit links This page was last edited on 5 January 2021, at 02:31 (UTC). 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