Jorie Graham

Jorie Graham (née Pepper; born May 9, 1950) is an

American poet. The Poetry Foundation called Graham Jorie Graham
"one of the most celebrated poets of the American
post-war generation."[1] She replaced poet Seamus
Heaney as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory
at Harvard University, becoming the first woman to be
appointed to this position.[1] She won the Pulitzer Prize
for Poetry (1996) for The Dream of the Unified Field:
Selected Poems 1974-1994 and was chancellor of the
Academy of American Poets from 1997 to 2003. She
won the 2013 International Nonino Prize in Italy.

Early life and education Jorie Graham, speaking at a poetry reading in

2007
Graham was born in New York City in 1950 to Curtis
Born Jorie Pepper
Bill Pepper, a war correspondent and the head of the
May 9, 1950
Rome bureau for Newsweek magazine, and the sculptor
New York City, U.S.
Beverly Stoll Pepper. She and her brother John
Randolph Pepper were raised in Rome, Italy. She Education New York University (BFA)
studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, but was University of Iowa (MFA)
expelled for participating in student protests. She Occupation poet
completed her undergraduate work as a film major at Spouses William Graham ​(divorced)​
New York University, and became interested in poetry
James Galvin
during that time. (She claims that her interest was ​
​(m. 1983; div. 1999)​
sparked while walking past M.L. Rosenthal's
Peter M. Sacks ​(m. 2000)​
classroom and overhearing the last couplet of "The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" ). After working as a Children 1
secretary, she later went on to receive her Master of Parents Curtis Bill Pepper (father)
Fine Arts from the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop at
Beverly Stoll (mother)
the University of Iowa.
Website joriegraham.com (http://joriegraha
m.com)

Career
Graham is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including notable volumes like The End of
Beauty, The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994, Sea Change, P L A C E, From the
New World (Poems 1976-2014), Fast, and Runaway. She has also edited two anthologies, Earth Took of
Earth: 100 Great Poems of the English Language (1996) and The Best American Poetry 1990. She is
widely anthologized and her poetry is the subject of many essays, including Jorie Graham: Essays on the
Poetry (2005). The Poetry Foundation considers Graham's third book, The End of Beauty (1987), to have
been a "watershed" book in which Graham first used the longer verse line for which she is best known.[1]
Graham's many honors include a Whiting Award (1985), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Fellowship, The Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from The American
Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the Whiting Award.[2] The Dream of the Unified Field:
Selected Poems 1974-1994 won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her collection of poetry P L A C E
won the 2012 Forward Poetry Prize for best collection, becoming the first American woman ever to win
one of the UK's most prestigious poetry accolades.[3] P L A C E was also shortlisted for the 2012 T. S.
Eliot Prize.[4] In 2013, Graham became only the third American to win the International Nonino Prize. In
2015, From the New World: Selected Poems 1976-2014—a collection from all prior eleven volumes plus
new work—was published by HarperCollins/Ecco Press. In 2016 From the New World won the LA Times
Book Award for poetry.[5]

In 2017, Graham received the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets.[6] Given
annually to recognize outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry, recipients are nominated and
elected by a majority vote of the Academy's Board of Chancellors. She won the 2018 Bobbitt National
Prize for Poetry for Fast.[7]

About Jorie Graham, Academy of American Poets Chancellor Claudia Rankine said: "Jorie Graham's
masterful poems traverse almost four decades of inquiry into what it means to be in relation. Her work
pulls forward our mythical, historical, environmental, and personal narratives in order to inhabit our most
ordinary and collective experiences. Hers is the patience of the return; repetition in her work unearths the
nuances of fundamental desires to live, to love, to be. Clear-eyed and with a scope that encompasses what
is both known and unknown, her 15 collections have built towards a brilliant insistence on presence."[6]

She served as a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets from 1997 to 2003.

Personal life
Graham has held a longtime faculty position at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and has held an appointment
at Harvard University since 1999. Graham replaced Nobel Laureate and poet Seamus Heaney as Boylston
professor in Harvard's Department of English and American Literature and Language. She became the
first woman to be awarded this position.[1][8]

Graham was married to and divorced from publishing heir William Graham, brother of Donald E.
Graham, the former publisher of The Washington Post. She then married the poet James Galvin in 1983
and they divorced in 1999. She married poet and painter Peter M. Sacks, in 2000.[9]

Poetry competition controversy

In January 1999, she judged the University of Georgia Contemporary Poetry series contest, which
selected the manuscript "O Wheel" from Peter M. Sacks, her future husband, as the first-place winner.
Graham noted that at that time she was not married to Sacks, and that while she had "felt awkward" about
giving the award to her then-boyfriend, she had first cleared it with the series editor, Bin Ramke.[9][10] As
a result of the critical media coverage[11][12][13] Ramke resigned from the editorship of the series.
Graham subsequently announced that she would no longer serve as a judge in contests[9][12] although she
continued to do so after 2008.[14] Throughout the course of the contest, Ramke had insisted that judges of
the contest be kept secret, and until Foetry.com obtained the names of judges via The Open Records Act,
the conflict of interest had been undisclosed. A statement now adopted in the rules of many competitions
(including the University of Georgia Contest) to prevent judges from selecting students is often referred
to as the "Jorie Graham rule".[13][15][16]

The Foetry site also contended that Graham, as a judge at Georgia and other contests, had awarded prizes
to at least five of her former students from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, including Joshua Clover, Mark
Levine, and Geoffrey Nutter.[16] Graham's reply to this was that over years of teaching she has had over
1400 students, many of whom went on to continue writing poetry, that no rules had prohibited her from
awarding prizes to former students, and that in each case she claims to have selected the strongest
work.[9]

Awards

Year Title Award Result Ref.

1985 Whiting Award for Poetry Winner [17]

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for [18]

1991 Region of Unlikeness Finalist
Poetry

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for [19]

1994 Materialism: Poems Finalist
Poetry

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for [20][21]

Finalist
Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems Poetry
1996
1974-1994
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry Winner [22]

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for [23]

2008 Sea Change: Poems Finalist
Poetry

Forward Prize for Poetry Winner [24]

2012 PLACE
T. S. Eliot Prize Finalist [25]

Neustadt International Prize for [26]

2012 Finalist
Literature

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for [27]

2015 From the New World: Poems 1976–2014 Winner
Poetry

2017 Wallace Stevens Award Winner [28][29]

Publications

Poetry

Collections

Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts (https://books.google.com/books?id=ooQjMg81N3cC).

Princeton University Press. 1980. ISBN 978-0-691-01335-0.
 Erosion (https://archive.org/details/erosion00grah_1). Princeton University Press. 1983.
ISBN 978-0-691-01405-0. "Jorie Graham."
The End of Beauty (https://archive.org/details/endofbeauty0000grah). Ecco Press. 1987.
ISBN 978-0-88001-130-3.
Region of Unlikeness (https://archive.org/details/regionofunlikene0000grah). Ecco Press.
1991. ISBN 978-0-88001-290-4.
Materialism. Ecco. 1993. ISBN 978-0-88001-617-9.
The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994 (https://archive.org/details/drea
mofunifiedfi00grah). HarperCollins. 1995. ISBN 978-0-88001-476-2.[30]
The Errancy (https://archive.org/details/errancypoems00grah). Ecco Press. 1997. ISBN 978-
0-88001-528-8.[31]
Photographs and Poems. Photographs Jeannette Montgomery Barron. Scalo. 1998.
Swarm (https://archive.org/details/swarm00jori). HarperCollins. 2000. ISBN 978-0-06-
093509-2.[32]
Never. HarperCollins. 2002. ISBN 978-0-06-008472-1.[33]
Overlord. HarperCollins. 2005. ISBN 978-0-06-075811-0.[34]
Sea Change. HarperCollins. 2008. ISBN 978-0-06-153718-9.[35]
P L A C E. Ecco Press. 2012. ISBN 9780062190642[36]
From The New World: Poems 1976-2014. Ecco Press. 2015. ISBN 9780062315403[37]
Fast. Ecco Press. 2017. ISBN 9780062663481.[38]
Runaway. Ecco Press. 2020. ISBN 9780063036703.[39]
[To] The Last [Be] Human. Copper Canyon. 2022. ISBN 9781556596605.[40]
To 2040. Copper Canyon. 2023. ISBN 9781556596773.[41]

Anthologies (edited)

Graham, Jorie & David Lehman, eds. (1990). The Best American Poetry 1990. Collier
Books.[42]
Graham, Jorie, ed. (1996). Earth took of earth : 100 great poems of the English language.
Ecco Press.

List of poems
 Title Year First published Reprinted/collected

Graham, Jorie (January 4–11, 2021). "I

catch sight of the now" (https://www.newyo
I catch sight of the
2021 rker.com/magazine/2021/01/04/i-catch-sig
now
ht-of-the-now). The New Yorker. 96 (43):
36–37.

Graham, Jorie (September 27, 2021). "I"

(https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20
I 2021
21/09/27/i). The New Yorker. 97 (30): 76–
77.

Essays and other contributions

Contributor to A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue Between East and West (Gingko Library,
2019). ISBN 9781909942288

Critical studies and reviews of Graham's work

Helen Vendler. The Breaking of Style: Hopkins, Heaney, Graham (1995)
Thomas Gardner, Regions of Unlikeness: Explaining Contemporary Poetry (1999)
Daniel McGuiness, "Jorie Graham in Stitches" and "The Long Line in Jorie Graham and
Charles Wright," in Holding Patterns: Temporary Poetics in Contemporary Poetry (http://ww
w.sunypress.edu/p-3349-holding-patterns.aspx), State University of New York Press, Albany
NY (2001)
Catherine Karaguezian, No Image There and the Gaze Remains: The Visual in the Work of
Jorie Graham (2005)
Thomas Gardner (ed.), Jorie Graham: Essays on the Poetry (2005)

References
1. "Jorie Graham" (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jorie-graham). Poetry Foundation.
October 18, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2010.
2. "whiting awards | Jorie Graham - 1985 Winner in Poetry" (https://www.whiting.org/awards/wi
nners/jorie-graham#/). whiting.org. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
3. Alison Flood (October 1, 2012). "Jorie Graham takes 2012 Forward prize" (https://www.theg
uardian.com/books/2012/oct/01/forwardprizeforpoetry-poetry). The Guardian. Retrieved
October 1, 2012.
4. Alison Flood (October 23, 2012). "TS Eliot prize for poetry announces 'fresh, bold' shortlist"
(https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/23/ts-eliot-prize-poetry-shortlist). The
Guardian. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
5. Lewis, David. "Here are the 2016 L.A. Times Book Prize winners" (http://www.latimes.com/b
ooks/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-festival-of-books-winners-20160331-snap-htmlstory.html). Los
Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0458-3035). Retrieved
October 12, 2017.
 6. nparedes (August 15, 2017). "The Academy of American Poets Announces the Recipients of
the 2017 American Poets Prizes" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170831000926/https://ww
w.poets.org/academy-american-poets/stanza/academy-american-poets-announces-recipient
s-2017-american-poets-prizes). The Academy of American Poets Announces the Recipients
of the 2017 American Poets Prizes. Archived from the original (https://www.poets.org/acade
my-american-poets/stanza/academy-american-poets-announces-recipients-2017-american-
poets-prizes) on August 31, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
7. "Jorie Graham Wins Bobbitt Poetry Prize" (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/arts/jorie-gr
aham-bobbitt-poetry-prize.html). Retrieved November 2, 2018.
8. David Orr, "ON POETRY; Jorie Graham, Superstar," 'New York Times Sunday Book Review,
April 24, 2005; available (https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/books/review/24ORRL.html)
at the Time website (accessed March 16, 2008)
9. Tomas Alex Tizon, "In Search of Poetic Justice," Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2005.
Available at the LA Times (https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20091015141722/http://articles.l
atimes.com/2005/jun/17/nation/na-foetry17) (subscription needed). Text is available at New
Poetry Review (http://www.newpoetryreview.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=346&sid=7579d596
987e6e68e16f022fd314ce22) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120725143644/http://
www.newpoetryreview.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=346&sid=7579d596987e6e68e16f022fd3
14ce22) 2012-07-25 at the Wayback Machine or SFgate (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic
le.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/10/BAGGJDJQJI1.DTL&type=printable) (accessed 16 March 2007)
10. Kevin Larimer, "The Contester: Who's Doing What to Keep Them Clean", Poets & Writers
Magazine, July/August 2005. Formerly available at Poets and Writers (https://www.pw.org/m
ag/0511/newslarimer.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20071119002839/http://ww
w.pw.org/mag/0511/newslarimer.htm) 2007-11-19 at the Wayback Machine (page currently
offline)
11. Foetry.com archive (http://foetry.com/wp/?page_id=80) Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20070613173925/http://foetry.com/wp/?page_id=80) 2007-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
12. Thomas Bartlett, "Rhyme and Unreason," Chronicle of Higher Education, May 20, 2005,
available here (http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i37/37a01201.htm) (accessed March 16, 2005)
13. John Sutherland, "American foetry," The Guardian, Monday July 4, 2005 the Guardian (htt
p://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1520718,00.html)
14. Graham was selected to judge the 2008 "Discovery"/Boston Review 2008 Poetry Contest (h
ttp://www.92y.org/content/literary_programs.asp#3) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
080331190111/http://www.92y.org/content/literary_programs.asp#3) 2008-03-31 at the
Wayback Machine, with deadline January 18, 2008; and judged the Baker Nord Poetry
Competition in 2011 (https://jacoboet.com/poetry/).
15. Alex Beam, "Website polices rhymes and misdemeanors," Boston Globe, March 31, 2005,
available here (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/03/31/website_police
s_rhymes_and_misdemeanors/)
16. "Foetry page on Jorie Graham" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070719050540/http://foetry.c
om/wp/?page_id=85). Archived from the original (http://foetry.com/wp/?page_id=85) on July
19, 2007. Retrieved March 16, 2008.
17. "Search All Winners" (https://www.whiting.org/writers/awards/search). Whiting Awards.
Retrieved August 4, 2022.
18. "1991 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - Poetry Winner and Nominees" (https://www.awardsar
chive.com/1991-los-angeles-times-book-prize-poetry-winner-and-nominees/). Awards
Archive. March 25, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
19. "1994 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - Poetry Winner and Nominees" (https://www.awardsar
chive.com/1994-los-angeles-times-book-prize-poetry-winner-and-nominees/). Awards
Archive. March 25, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
20. "1996 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - Poetry Winner and Nominees" (https://www.awardsar
chive.com/1996-los-angeles-times-book-prize-poetry-winner-and-nominees/). Awards
Archive. March 25, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
21. "Awards: L.A. Times Book; Griffin Poetry" (https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issu
e=2732). Shelf Awareness. April 14, 2016. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
22. "About Jorie Graham | Academy of American Poets" (https://poets.org/poet/jorie-graham).
Academy of American Poets. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
23. "2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - Poetry Winner and Nominees" (https://www.awardsar
chive.com/2008-los-angeles-times-book-prize-poetry-winner-and-nominees/). Awards
Archive. March 25, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
24. "Awards: Thurber Winner; Forward Prize for Poetry" (https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issu
e.html?issue=1840). Shelf Awareness. October 2, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
25. "Awards: T.S. Eliot Prize Shortlist" (https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=185
7). Shelf Awareness. October 26, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
26. "Awards: Neustadt International Finalists" (https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?iss
ue=3543). Shelf Awareness. July 25, 2019. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
27. "2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - Poetry Winner and Nominees" (https://www.awardsar
chive.com/2015-los-angeles-times-book-prize-poetry-winner-and-nominees/). Awards
Archive. March 25, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
28. "Awards: PEN Center USA; Academy of American Poets" (https://www.shelf-awareness.co
m/issue.html?issue=3070). Shelf Awareness. August 22, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
29. "The Academy of American Poets Announces the Recipients of the 2017 American Poets
Prizes | poets.org" (https://poets.org/academy-american-poets/academy-american-poets-an
nounces-recipients-2017-american-poets-prizes). Academy of American Poets. Retrieved
August 4, 2022.
30. "Dream of the Unified Field by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/97808800
14380). Publishers Weekly. October 30, 1995. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
31. "Errancy by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780880015288). Publishers
Weekly. June 30, 1997. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
32. "Swarm: Poems by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780880016957).
Publishers Weekly. November 29, 1999. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
33. "NEVER by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780060084714). Publishers
Weekly. February 25, 2002. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
34. "OVERLORD by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780060745653).
Publishers Weekly. January 24, 2005. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
35. "Sea Chage by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780061537172).
Publishers Weekly. March 17, 2008. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
36. "Place by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780062190642). Publishers
Weekly. May 21, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
37. "From the New World: Poems 1976–2014 by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.c
om/9780062315403). Publishers Weekly. January 19, 2015. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
38. "Fast: Poems by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780062663481).
Publishers Weekly. March 27, 2017. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
39. "Runaway by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780063036703).
Publishers Weekly. September 16, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
40. "[To] the Last [Be] Human by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/978155659
6605). Publishers Weekly. September 15, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
41. "To 2040 by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781556596773). Publishers
Weekly. April 13, 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
42. "The Best American Poetry 1990 by Jorie Graham" (https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780
020327851). Publishers Weekly. October 1, 1990. Retrieved November 2, 2024.

External links
Official website (https://www.joriegraham.com/)
Profile and poems at Poetry Foundation (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jorie-graham)
Profile and poems written and audio at Poets.org (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/5
8)
Profile at The Whiting Awards (http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/jorie-graham#/)
Thomas Gardner (Spring 2003). "Jorie Graham, The Art of Poetry No. 85" (http://www.thepar
isreview.org/interviews/263/the-art-of-poetry-no-85-jorie-graham). The Paris Review. Spring
2003 (165).
Documents obtained by Foetry.com regarding the Graham/Sacks/Ramke collusion in pdf
format (https://web.archive.org/web/20110711014619/http://foetry.com/foetry/mailfraud.pdf)
Graham reading at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on May 20, 1999. (http://po
dcast.lannan.org/2010/06/12/jorie-graham-reading-20-may-1999-video/) Video (49 mins)
"Rhyme & Unreason" from the May 20, 2005 cover story in the Chronicle of Higher
Education (http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i37/37a01201.htm)
An interview with Jorie Graham (https://web.archive.org/web/20080408150414/http://www.p
hillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/351-04012008-1512367.html), phillyBurbs.com, April 2008
Jorie Graham Resists Classic Pleasures Like Closure, a Concept Anathema to the Poet and
Her Country (https://www.thenation.com/article/modernist-poetry-in-a-crowdsourcing-age/)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jorie_Graham&oldid=1260770128"