Dick Allen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Richard Stanley Allen August 8, 1939 Troy, New York |
| Died | December 26, 2017 (aged 78) Bridgeport, Connecticut |
| Occupation | Poet, literary critic |
| Nationality | American |
| Literary movement | Expansive Poetry Zen Poetry |
| Notable awards | Robert Frost Prize |
Richard Stanley Allen (August 8, 1939 – December 26, 2017) was an American poet, literary critic and academic.
The son of Richard Sanders Allen, a writer and historian, and Doris (née Bishop), a postmaster, Allen was educated at the College of Liberal Arts at Syracuse University (A.B. 1961), then at the Brown University graduate school (M.A. 1964), and subsequently undertook two years of post-Masters work.
Having been a teaching assistant at Brown whilst studying, he went on to teach creative writing and English literature at Wright State University from 1964-8, then the University of Bridgeport.[1] When he retired, he was the Charles A. Dana Endowed Chair Professor at the University of Bridgeport.
From July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2015, he served as Connecticut's poet laureate. During this time he wrote the poem "Solace" in remembrance of the victims of the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT. This poem was subsequently set to music by the composer William Bolcom.[2]
Allen was co-editor of several anthologies of science fiction and science fiction criticism,[3] and his book, Overnight in the Guest House of the Mystic, was a finalist for the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.[4] He was one of the founders of the Expansive Poetry movement. His influences included Ralph Waldo Emerson, A.E. Housman, Ben Jonson, Robert Frost[5]
His poems appeared in many journals, including Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The Hudson Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Yale Review, Boulevard, The Gettysburg Review, JuxtaProse Literary Magazine, and The New Criterion.[3] Allen died on December 26, 2017, after a heart attack.[6]
