Partial list of publications: The Auroras, The Face: A Novella in Verse, Prism, In the Pines: Lost Poems, Study for the World’s Body: New and Selected Poems, Terraces of Rain: An Italian Sketchbook, No Heaven, The Shore, Hush, Where the Angels Come Toward Us
Genres: Poetry and fiction
Awards: Recipient of many awards and fellowships, including The Prix de Rome Fellowship, The O.B. Hardison Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library, a Guggenheim Fellowship, several National Endowments for the Arts, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts
Languages: English, French, Italian
Current residence: Venice, California

Education

MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Iowa
BA in English (Creative Writing), California State University, Fresno

About

David St. John is an award-winning poet born in Fresno, California. St. John’s work has earned him some of the most prestigious awards for poets, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, several National Endowments for the Arts, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts. He has authored nine collections of poetry, including The Auroras, The Face: A Novella in Verse, Prism, In the Pines: Lost Poems, Study for the World’s Body: New and Selected Poems, Terraces of Rain: An Italian Sketchbook, No Heaven, The Shore, and Hush. St. John has also authored the collection of interviews and essays entitled Where the Angels Come Toward Us, and he has edited numerous poetry anthologies, including The Pushcart Book of Poetry and American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry. His work has also appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Harper’s, and more. St. John has taught creative writing at Oberlin College and Johns Hopkins University and currently teaches at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Teaching Experience

• Teaching/Writing Fellow, Iowa Writers’ Workshop, The University of Iowa, 1973-74
• Assistant Professor, Department of English, and Acting Director, Department of Creative Writing (Spring 1997), Oberlin College, 1975-77
• Assistant Professor, The Writing Seminars, The Johns Hopkins University, 1977-81
• Associate Professor, The Writing Seminars, The Johns Hopkins University, 1981-87
• Professor, Department of English, The University of Southern California, 1987-present
• Director of Creative Writing, The University of Southern California, 1994-2001
• Director of PhD Program in Literature and Creative Writing, The University of Southern California, 2003-6

Awards & Honors

• The Prix de Rome Fellowship
• The O. B.  Hardison Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library
• Winner, The Nation-Discovery ’75 Contest, sponsored by The Poetry Center of the 92nd Street YM-YWHA and The Nation Magazine; 1975.
• The Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award, awarded to HUSH as the best first book of poetry for 1976.
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry; 1976.
• The Johns Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Poetry; 1977-78 (taken in 1978-79).
• The James D. Phelan Prize, awarded by the San Francisco Foundation to the book THE SHORE; 1980.
• Maryland Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry; 1980.
• The Ingram Merrill Foundation grant in Poetry; 1984.
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry; 1984.
• The Rome Fellowship in Literature (Prix de Rome), awarded by The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; 1984.
• Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Award, University of Southern California, 1991-1992.
• Creative Writing Faculty of the Year, USCChapter of the English Honor society of Sigma Tau Delta, 1993.
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, 1994.
• Nomination: National Book Award in Poetry, 1994, for STUDY FOR THE WORLD’S BODY.
• Nomination: The PEN West Prize in Poetry, 1994, for STUDY FOR THE WORLD’S BODY.
• The Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize ($1,000) from The American Poetry Review, 1995.
• Visiting Scholar, The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities,1998 (Spring/Summer).
• Nomination: The Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry, 1999, for THE RED LEAVES OF NIGHT.
• The Academy Award in Literature, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2000.
• The O. B. Hardison Prize in Poetry (Career Achievement in Poetry and Teaching Prize), awarded by The Folger Shakespeare Library of Washington, D. C., 2001.

Professional Listings

• The Centennial Directory of the American Academy in Rome The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poets
• Contemporary Poets
• Rome Society of Fellows

Languages

• English, French, and Italian

Publications

Authored Books (Poetry)

• THE AURORAS; HarperCollins Publishers, 2012
• HUSH; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976. Republished by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.
• THE SHORE; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980.
• NO HEAVEN; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985.
• TERRACES OF RAIN: An Italian Sketchbook (fine press edition with drawings by Antoine Predock); Recursos Books, Santa Fe Literary Arts Center, 1991.
• STUDY FOR THE WORLD’S BODY: New and Selected Poems; HarperCollins 1994.
• IN THE PINES: LOST POEMS, 1972-1997; White Pine Press, 1999.
• THE RED LEAVES OF NIGHT; HarperCollins, 1999.
• PRISM; Arctos Press, 2002.
• THE FACE: A Novella in Verse; HarperCollins, 2004.

Edited Books (Poetry)

• THE SELECTED LEVIS (The Poetry of Larry Levis), edited and with an afterward by David St. John. The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000.
• AMERICAN HYBRID:A Norton Anthology of the New Poem, edited by David St. John and Cole Swensen. Norton (2008).

Books (Prose)

• WHERE THE ANGELS COME TOWARD US: Selected Essays, Reviews, and Interviews;White Pine Press, 1995.

Limited Edition Books (Poetry)

• FOR LEDIRA; The Penumbra Press, 1973.
• THE OLIVE GROVE; W.D. Hoffstadt & Sons, 1980.
• A FOLIO OF LOST WORLDS; Tropos Press, 1981.
• THE MAN IN THE YELLOW GLOVES; The Penumbra Press, 1985.
• THE ORANGE PIANO; Illuminati, 1987.
• THE FIGURE YOU; Thornwillow Press, 1998.

Translation (Books)

• GOD’S SHADOW, by Reza Baraheni, translated by the author, with David St. John, Burt Blume, & Michael Henderson. The University of Indiana Press, 1976.

Anthologies & Texts (Poetry)

The American Poetry Anthology (1975); The Pushcart Prize IV (1979); Writing Poems (1982, Second Edition 1987); To Make A Poem (1982); Love Stories/Love Poems: An Anthology (1982); The Longman Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (1983, Second Edition 1989); The Heath Guide to Poetry (1983); Two Decades of New Poets (1984); Divided Light: Father and Son Poems (1984); New American Poets of the 80′s (1984); Songs From Unsung Worlds (1985); The Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets (1985); Strong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Forms (1985); The Antaeus Anthology (1986) Piecework (1987); Vital Signs: Contemporary American Poetry From The University Presses (1989); The Best American Poetry of 1989 (1989); The Best American Poetry of 1990 (1990); The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets and Nature (1991); The Best American Poetry of 1991 (1991); New American Poets of the ’90s (1991); The Best American Poetry of 1992 (1992); One Hundred and One Poems of Romance (1992). Sweet Nothings (1993); The Sarjevo Anthology (1993); What Will Suffice: The Ars Poetica in Contemporary American Poetry (1994); Walk on the Wild Side (1994); Models of the Universe;(1994); Clare/Song (1994); The Pushcart Prize XX (1995); The Writing Path (1995); Grand Passion (1995); The Routledge Anthology of Cross-Gendered Verse (1995); Highway 99 (1996); An Invisible Ladder (1996); The Pushcart Prize XXII (1997); Leaving Home (1997); The Beach Book: A Literary Companion (1998); Outsiders (1998); The Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (1999); The Geography of Home: California and the Poetry of Place (1999); Orpheus and Company (1999); The Making of a Poem: An Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000); Lighthouse Poems (2000); The Body Electric: The Best Poetry From The American Poetry Review (2000); Contemporary American Poetry (2000). Motion: American Sports Poems (2000); Beyond the Valley of Contemporary Poets (2000); Contemporary American Poetry (7th Edition; 2001;8th Edition, 2006); How Much Earth (2001); Poets of the New Century (2001); September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (2002); Poems of the American West (2002); Poetry in Motion from Coast to Coast (2002); So Luminous The WIildflowers: An Anthology of California Poets (2003); The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles (2003);Against Constraints: POETS FOR PEACE ANTHOLOGY (2003); Old Glory: American War Poems from the Revolutionary War to the War in Iraq (2004); The Best Of Poetry Daily (2004); The Janitor at Radio City Music Hall (2005); The Imaginary Poets (2005); Poetry Calender 2006 (2005); Range of Voices (2005); Cloud View Poets (2005); Manthology: Poems on the Male Experience (2005); Words Brushed By Music (2005); The Face of Poetry (2005); Literature: The Human Experience, Ninth Edition (2005); Francis and Clare in Poetry (2005); Lineas Conectados: Nueva poesia de los Estados Unidos (2006); American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets (2006); Third Rail The Poetry of Rock and Roll (2007); American Poets Against the War (2009).

Anthologies, Text or Essay Collections (Prose)

Charles Wright: A Profile (1979); Poets Teaching (1980); Acts of Mind: Conversations With Contemporary Poets (1983); 45 Contemporary Poets: The Creative Process (1985); Contemporary Literary Criticism (1985); The Day I Was Older: Essays on Donald Hall (1989); Conversant Essays: Contemporary Poets On Poetry (1990); Under Discussion: Philip Levine (1990); Spreading the Word: Editors on Poetry (1990); Creative Writing in America: Theory and Pedagogy (1990); Giving Sorrow Words (1990); The Practice of Poetry (1992); The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry in English (1994); So the Wind Won’t Blow It Away (1995); The Point Where All Things Meet (1995); The Point Where All Things Meet: Essays on Charles Wright (1995); Writing It Down For James: Writers on Craft (1995); Poets Reading: The FIELD Symposia (1999); Writing in Flow, (1999). City Secrets: Rome (2000); “Forward,” The Gazer Within: The Selected Prose of Larry Levis,” University of Michigan Press, (2000); “The Poetry of Philip Levine,” Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale Research, (2002); “Larry Levis: An Afterward”; A Condition of the Spirit: The Life and Work of Larry Levis (2004); “Introduction,” Cloud View Poets (2005); The Imaginary Poets (2005); Poets On Place (2005); High Lonesome: On the Poetry of Charles Wright (2005); Lasting: Poems on Aging (2005);Dark Horses:: Poets on Overlooked Poems (2007); Chafrles Wright in Conversation: Interviews 1979-2006 (2008).

Public Art

• Poetry carved into marble. Lobby. The Junipero Serra Building, State of California General Services, Bldg. Los Angeles.

Magazines (Poetry Published in)

The New Yorker, Poetry, Antaeus, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New Republic, Field, The Partisan Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, Boulevard, The Antioch Review and many others.

Essays, Articles & Reviews in Newspapers & Journals

Parnassus, The American Poetry Review, The Washington Post Book World, The Seneca Review, The Antioch Review, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book World,Field, Open Places, Quarry west, Denver Quarterly,Los Angeles Magazine, The Western Humanities Review and others.

Musical Settings of Poems/Musical Collaborations

• Setting of the poem “Shadow” by famed composer David Diamond, 1977.
• “Winter Fires,” song collaboration with Peter Byrne (from the band Naked Eyes) on the solo album The Real Illusion, 2001 A Different Drum/PJB Music.
• “The Village,” a setting of two poems by David St. John by composer Donald Crockett; premiered in Germany by the Hilliard Ensemble, February 23, 2005.
• The Face, a chamber opera with libretto by David St. John (based on the book of poems:The Face: A Novella in Verse) and composed by Donald Crockett, 2008.

Additional Professional Experience

• Assistant Poetry Editor: The Iowa Review, 1974-75.
• Associate Editor: Field, 1975-77.
• Associate Editor: The Seneca Review, 1977-81.
• Poetry Editor: Intro II, AWP. 1980.
• Preliminary Judge: The Walt Whitman Award of The Academy of American Poets, 1982.
• Consultant in Poetry, United States Military Academy, 1982-94.
• Consultant in Poetry for Wesleyan University Press, 1982-90.
• Contributing Editor: Poet & critic, 1981-89.
• Poetry Editor: The Antioch Review, 1981-96.
• Editor: Poets and Poetry: A Special Issue, The Antioch Review(Winter, 1987).
• Guest Editor: Poetry Pilot (Academy of American Poets) March,1987.
• Editor: Poetry Today, The Antioch Review (Summer, 1990).
• Poetry Book Review Editor: The Antioch Review, 1981-1996.
• Chair: Judging Committee for the PEN Center West Prize in Poetry,1991.
• Judge/Master Poet for Ruth Lilly Scholarship, 1991.
• Editor: Poets and Poetry: A Special Issue, The Antioch Review,(Winter, 1994).
• Judge: “Discovery”/ The Nation Prize, 1994.
• Judge: The Lamont Poetry Prize/James Laughlin Prize, The Academy of American Poets, 1994-1996.
• Co-Editor for Poetry, Pushcart Prize XIX, Best of the Small Presses, 1994.
• Judge: Poetry Society of America, Mary Carolyn Davies Memorial Award, 1995.
• Chair, James Laughlin Prize Committee, The Academy of American Poets, 1996.
• Editor at Large, The Antioch Review, 1996-currently.
• National Advisory Committee, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Foundation, 1997-currently.
• National Advisory Committee, Idyllwild Arts Foundation, 1998-currently.
• National Advisory Board, California Poetry Series, Clapperstick Institute, 1998-currently.
• Judge, The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, 1998.
• National Advisory Board, The Academy of American Poets Poetry Book Club, 1998-currently.
• Judge (Chair): Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry, 1997-1999.
• Judge, The Ann Stanford Prize, The Southern California Anthology, 1998.
• Chair, James Laughlin Prize Committee, The Academy of American Poets, 1998.
• Advisory Editor, The Academy of American Poets Poetry Book Club, 1998-present.
• Judge (Chair); Poetry; Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2005-2008.
• Hurst Professor in Creative Writing, Washington University, St. Louis, 2005.
• Visiting Poet, Stadler Poetry Center Summer Seminar, Bucknell University, 2005.
• Contributing Editor, West Branch, 2005-present.
• Editor, Winter 2005-2006, Ploughshares (poems and stories).
• Editor, The Ash Tree Poetry Series, for Tebot Bach Press, 2005-present.
• Editor, represented in The Pushcart Book of Poetry, 2006.
• Judge (Chair): Poetry: PEN USA Prize in Poetry, 2006-2007.
• Judge, Felix Pollack and Brittingham Poetry Prizes, University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.
• Judge (Panel Member) for The National Book Award in Poetry, 2006-2007.
• Judge, Patricia Bibby First Book Prize, Tebot Bach Press, 2006-present.
• The Elliston Chair in Poetry, University of Cincinnati, 2007.
• Mentor, Emerging Voices Program, PEN USA, 2007.