Alfred Corn has published eight previous books of poems, the most recent titled Contradictions. He has also published a novel, Part of His Story; two collections of essays; and The Poem’s Heartbeat, a study of prosody. Fellowships for his poetry include the Guggenheim, the NEA, an Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and one from the Academy of American Poets. Poetry magazine awarded him the Levinson, Blumenthal, and Dillon prizes. He has taught writing at Yale, Columbia, Oklahoma State University, and UCLA.
Praise for Alfred Corn:
"Corn's formal range is everywhere apparent. He even attempts sapphics in English which closely resemble what might be accomplished in the Greek. But as he understands art to be 'always more than technical virtuosity,' his poetry never merely displays his considerable poetic skills, but rather becomes a mode of thought, an inquiry into art and passion, the limits of mastery, mortality, divinity, and the possible destiny of the human soul."
—Carolyn Forché
"Eminently cosmopolitan, he is a stylist of the first order, both in verse and in prose … Erudite without being pedantic, Corn draws deeply from our cultural history to establish correspondences between the most disparate entities…. In verse the author’s tone ranges from the pedagogical to the personal, and the two occur together often enough to suggest that teaching what he knows both to his own students and to his unseen readers, is for him an act of love."
—William Ferguson
"Alfred Corn is one of our finest living poets. He works in the visionary tradition of Whitman and Crane, and makes bold new use of classical and European influences. … Best of all, despite the largeness of his expectations, Corn is no softie. He eschews sentimentality. He is humorous, observant, quick to see awkward details, human failings, ironic mishaps."
—Grace Schulman
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