The David St. John papers consist of notes, drafts, and publication materials for all of St. John's collections of poetry, as well as for prose works, individual and unpublished poems, and collaborative works. The collection also contains drafts of introductions that St. John wrote for others' works, interview transcripts and recordings, scripts for and recordings of readings and lectures, notebooks, agendas and appointment calendars, and materials from various committees and professional activities. St. John's correspondence includes letters from Norman Dubie, Mark Irwin, Donald Justice, Galway Kinnell, R.B. Kitaj, W.S. Merwin, Howard Norman, Adrienne Rich, and Mark Strand, among many others. The collection also holds papers from other Fresno poets Larry Levis, Philip Levine, and Roberta Spear -- along with collaborative works involving St. John, Levis, Levine, and Spear.

Author David St. John has been honored, over the course of his career, with many prizes, including both The Rome Fellowship and The Award in Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters; the O. B. Hardison Prize (a career award for teaching and poetic achievement) from The Folger Shakespeare Library; and the George Drury Smith Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of twelve collections of poetry (including Study for the World's Body, nominated for The National Book Award in Poetry), most recently, The Last Troubadour: New and Selected Poems; as well as a volume of essays, interviews and reviews entitled Where the Angels Come Toward Us. St. John has written two libretti: for the opera based on his book, The Face, by Donald Crockett, and for the choral symphony, The Shore, by Frank Ticheli. He is also the co-editor of American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry. A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, St. John is University Professor and chair of English at The University of Southern California (USC). He was born in Fresno, California, on July 24, 1949, and received his BA in 1974 from California State University, Fresno, and an MFA from the University of Iowa. He now lives in Venice Beach, CA.

28 Linear Feet 26 boxes

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