Sydney Lea

Sydney Lea is an American poet, novelist, essayist, editor, and professor, and was the Poet Laureate of Vermont (2011–15).^[1]

Career[]

His most recent book, published in 2020, is The Exquisite Triumph of Wormboy (Word/Galaxy, 2020); it is a graphic mock-epic poem in collaboration with former Vermont Cartoonist Laureate James Kochalka. He has a thirteenth collection of poetry, Here now out from .^[2] He has taught for the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College, and at Yale University, Wesleyan University, Vermont College, Middlebury College, Franklin University Switzerland, and the National Hungarian University. He founded New England Review in 1977 and edited it until 1989. His work has appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker,^[3] The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New York Times,^[4] Sports Illustrated, Virginia Quarterly Review.^[5] His work across the genres has appeared in some sixty anthologies. His work "Mudtime" has been set as a long form song cycle for voice and string quartet by the composer Joseph Hallman which the poet described as "a high point of my term as poet laureate. It was so refreshing and so different, a great shot in the arm."^[6] It was premiered in 2014 by Hallman's long term collaborator, Abigail Haynes-Lennox and the 802 Quartet at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.^[6] He has since collaborated with the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble on a number of multimedia presentations. Lea was a finalist in poetry for the Pulitzer Prize in 2001.

Personal life[]

He lives in Newbury, Vermont.^[2][7]

Honors and awards[]

• 2011 appointed Poet Laureate of Vermont
• 2001 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Pursuit of a Wound
• 1998 Poets' Prize, for To the Bone: New and Selected Poems
• 1992 Fulbright Scholarship
• 1987 Guggenheim Fellowship^[8]
• 1985 Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship

Published works[]

Full-Length Poetry Collections

• Ghost Pain. Sarabande Books. 2005. ISBN 978-1-932511-14-7.
• Pursuit of a Wound. University of Illinois Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0-252-06817-1.
• To the Bone: New and Selected Poems. University of Illinois Press. 1996. ISBN 978-0-252-06519-4.
• The Blainville testament. Story Line Press. 1992. ISBN 978-0-934257-80-0.
• Prayer for the little city: poems. Scribner's. 1989. ISBN 978-0-684-19129-4.
• The floating candles: poems. University of Illinois Press. 1982. ISBN 978-0-252-00976-1.

Novels

• A Place in Mind. Story Line Press. 1997. ISBN 978-1-885266-39-2. 1st edition Scribner's 1989

Essay Collections

• A Little Wildness: Some Notes On Rambling. Story Line Press. 2006. ISBN 978-1-58654-046-3.
• Hunting the Whole Way Home: Essays and Poems. Globe Pequot. 2002. ISBN 978-1-58574-560-9. 1st edition
• Gothic to fantastic: readings in supernatural fiction. Ayer Publishing. 1980. ISBN 978-0-405-12653-6.

Anthology Publications

• Roger Weingarten; Richard Higgerson, eds. (2003). "Inviting the Moose: A Vision". Poets of the new century. David R. Godine, Publisher. ISBN 978-1-56792-178-6.

Anthologies Edited

• Robert Pack; Sydney Lea; Jay Parini, eds. (1985). The Bread Loaf anthology of contemporary American poetry. University Press of New England. ISBN 978-0-87451-350-9.
• Sydney Lea, ed. (2004). The breath of parted lips: voices from the Robert Frost Place, Volume 2. CavanKerry Press. ISBN 978-0-9678856-8-1.

References[]

External links[]

• Author's Website
• "Interview With Poet Sydney Lea", Poetic Asides, August 11, 2009
• Poems: "Mudtime In the County", Virginia quarterly Review, Autumn 1995
• Poems: "Canary Weather", Virginia quarterly Review, Autumn 1995
• Poems: "Children, Singing", The Atlantic, December 2003
• Essay: "The Death Of A Hunting Dog", Sports Illustrated, December 02, 1991