William Dickey
William Dickey was an influential American poet and educator, born on December 15, 1928, in Bellingham, Washington. He graduated from Reed College in 1951 and went on to earn an M.A. from Harvard in 1955, followed by an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop in 1956. His academic journey included studying as a Fulbright Scholar at Jesus College, Oxford, from 1959 to 1960. Dickey began his teaching career at Cornell University and later became a professor of English and creative writing at San Francisco State University, where he remained until his death in 1994.
In 1959, he published his first poetry collection, "Of the Festivity," which received high praise from notable poet W. H. Auden. Throughout his career, Dickey received various prestigious awards, including the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His poetry is recognized for its unique blend of darkness and light, seriousness and humor, reflecting a deep and insightful vision. Dickey's contributions to poetry have left a lasting impact, earning him recognition as a significant figure in American literature.
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William Dickey
Poet
- Born: December 15, 1928
- Birthplace: Bellingham, Washington
- Died: May 3, 1994
Biography
William Dickey was born December 15, 1928, in Bellingham, Washington, to Paul Condit and Anne Marie Hobart Dickey. He grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He graduated from Reed College in 1951 with a B.A. degree. He received an M.A. from Harvard in 1955; and, in 1956, he received the M.F.A. degree from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. From 1959 to 1960, he studied at Jesus College of Oxford as a Fulbright Scholar.
Dickey served as instructor in English at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, from 1956 to 1959. He married Shirley Anne Marn, a psychiatric nurse, in 1959. They divorced in 1973. Also in 1959, Dickey published his first collection of poems, Of the Festivity, as part of the Yale Series of Younger Poets. W. H. Auden edited the volume, praising the poems highly in the book’s forward for their sense of vision. He taught at Denison University in Granville, Ohio from 1960 to 1962, when he moved to San Francisco State University, where he served as a professor of English and creative writing until he died in 1994.
Dickey’s many awards include the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize for Of the Festivity in 1959; a Fulbright award from Oxford for 1959-1960; a Union League Foundation prize from Poetry magazine in 1962; a Commonwealth Club of California silver medal in 1972 for More Under Saturn; the Jupiter Prize from University of Massachusetts Press in 1978 for The Rainbow Grocery; a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship in 1978; and a creative writing award from the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980. William Dickey’s poetry has received numerous awards and been highly praised by critics. His work stands out for its keen sense of vision and its balance of darkness and light, seriousness and humor.