Eric Pankey Explained

Eric Pankey
Alma Mater:	University of Missouri University of Iowa
Occupation:	Poet, artist
Employer:	Washington University in St. Louis George Mason University
Birth Place:	Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.

Eric Pankey (born 1959 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American poet and artist. He is married to the poet Jennifer Atkinson (born 1955).

Pankey's poetry has moved from the literal and narrative as in _Heartwood,_ towards the suggestiveness of Emerson, without the hopefulness implicit in Emerson's transcendentalism. In Pankey's poems, often written in free verse forms or in prose poetry, the hint of grand comprehensiveness is suggested, without the hope of absorption into a universalizing or redemptive whole. The result, as in his "Souvenir de Voyage" (2015 in Verse)—an implied answer to Baudelaire's "Invitation au Voyage," is a glimpse of redemption from which the speaker of the poems, and thus the reader, is blocked, a promise unfulfilled and perhaps unfulfillable. Behind this urge lies a religious impulse that may remind a reader of T. S. Eliot. Yet the persistence of the seeking separates Pankey from Samuel Beckett; he remains on the closer side of despair.

Life

He graduated with a BA from the University of Missouri in 1981 and in 1983, his MFA from University of Iowa.^[1] In 1987, after teaching English at the high school level and writing poetry, he became the director of the Creative Writing Program at Washington University in St. Louis.^[2] He currently teaches at George Mason University.^[3] He lives with his wife and daughter in Fairfax, Virginia.^[1]

His work has appeared in The Antioch Review,^[4] Antaeus,^[5] Denver Quarterly,^[6] Seneca Review,^[7] Quarry West,^[8] Superpresent,^[9] and AGNI.^[10] His papers are held at Washington University Libraries.^[11]

Awards

• 1984 Walt Whitman Award* 1984 Younger Poets Award from Academy of American Poets^[12] selected by Mark Strand
• Ingram Merrill Foundation Award
• 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship^[13]
• National Endowment for the Arts^[14]

Works

Poetry

• Film Still. Courtland Review. Spring 2008.
• DREAM LANDSCAPE WITH THE OLD BRICKYARD ROAD CREEK AND BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON; THE PHRASE OF THINE ACTIONS; SAVANT OF BIRDCALLS; INTERLUDE; SEE THAT MY GRAVE IS SWEPT CLEAN. The Beltway Poetry Quarterly. 3. 3. Summer 2002 .
• Final Thought. Virginia Quarterly Review. Autumn 2002. 667–668. 2009-06-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20080906092232/http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2002/autumn/pankey-final-thought/. 2008-09-06. dead.
• An Eagle-Headed Genie Watering the Tree of Life. Virginia Quarterly Review. Autumn 2002. 667. 2009-06-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20081016002051/http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2002/autumn/pankey-eagle-headed-genie/. 2008-10-16. dead.
• READING IN BED; A WALK WITH MY FATHER; DEBTOR OF HAPPINESS; OVERCOAT; IN MEMORY; ABSTRACTION; SCAFFOLDING; THE PILGRIMAGE OF MY FATHER'S GHOST; APPROACHING ACCADEMIA: A NOCTURNE; IN SIENA, PROSPERO RECONSIDERS THE MARRIAGE AT CANA; THE AUGURY OF PROSPERO; SEE THAT MY GRAVE IS SWEPT CLEAN; HOW TO SUSTAIN THE VISIONARY MODE; THE ANNIVERSARY; EPITAPH; PIAZZA S. SPIRITO NO. 9; THE BACK-STORY; THE THOUSAND THISTLE SEEDS; BETWEEN WARS. The Innisfree Poetry Journal. Mar 13, 2008 .

Books

• Book: Tending the Garden. Yellow Jar Press. 1982 . chapbook
• Book: For the New Year . Atheneum . 1984 . 978-0-689-11507-3 .
• Book: Heartwood . Orchises Press. 1988. 978-0-914061-78-6.
• Book: Apocrypha. Knopf. 1991 . 978-0-679-40617-4 .
• Book: The Late Romances . Alfred A. Knopf . 1997 . 978-0-679-45454-0 .
• Book: Cenotaph . Knopf . 2000 . 978-0-375-40764-2 .
• Book: Oracle figures. Ausable Press. 2003. 978-1-931337-08-3 .
• Book: Reliquaries. Ausable Press. 2005. 978-1-931337-12-0 .
• Book: The Pear as One Example: New & Selected Poems 1984–2008. Ausable Press. 2008. 978-1-931337-39-7 .
• Book: Trace. Milkweed Editions. 2013. 978-1-57131-873-2 .
• Book: Dismantling the Angel. Parlor Press. 2014. 978-1-60235-487-6 .
• Book: Crow-Work. Milkweed Editions. 2015. 978-1-57131-884-8 .

Anthologies

• Book: Best of Prairie schooner. registration. Eric Pankey.. Hilda Raz. University of Nebraska Press. 2001. 978-0-8032-8972-7 .

External links

• official website
• "interview an interview with Eric Pankey", randomhouse
• "Eric Pankey", January 9, 2009, How a Poem Happens
• "32 Poems Interview with Eric Pankey", Serena M. Agusto-Cox, February 5, 2009, 32 Poems

Notes and References

1. Web site: Eric Pankey | Academy of American Poets. poets.org. 2015-04-08.
2. Web site: Brodeur . Brian . Eric Pankey . How A poem Happens . 9 Jan 2009 .
3. News: The Voice of Eric Pankey. Jeb Livingood. October 2002. 2009-06-18. 2008-08-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20080821222104/http://www.gmu.edu/news/gazette/dec96c/pankey.html. dead.
4. The Antioch Review. Kingsley, J.D.. The Antioch Review. 2005. Antioch Review, Incorporated. 0003-5769. 2015-04-08.
5. Book: Antaeus 63: Autumn 1989. Halpern, D.. 1989. HarperCollins Publishers. 9780880012263. 2015-04-08.
6. Book: Denver Quarterly. University of Denver. 1992. v. 26, no. 3. University of Denver.. 0011-8869. 2015-04-08.
7. Book: The Seneca Review. Hobart Student Association. Hobart College. William Smith College. William Smith Student Association. 1984. v. 14-15. Hobart Student Association. 0037-2145. 2015-04-08.
8. Book: Quarry West. University of California, Santa Cruz. College V.. Porter College (University of California, Santa Cruz). 1990. nos. 27-31. Quarry West. 0736-4628. 2015-04-08.
9. 2021. from Essays in Idleness: a zuihitsu. Superpresent. 2. 32–33. 2767-5289.
10. Web site: AGNI Online: Author Eric Pankey. bu.edu. 2015-04-08.
11. Web site: Eric Pankey, 1959-. American author. https://web.archive.org/web/20040815171219/http://www.library.wustl.edu/units/spec/manuscripts/mlc/pankey/pankey.html. 2004-08-15. dead. 2015-04-08.
12. Book: The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1985 . 1984 . Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc. . New York . 0-911818-71-5 . 414.
13. Web site: Eric Pankey - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. https://web.archive.org/web/20110603235636/http://www.gf.org/fellows/11164-eric-pankey . 2011-06-03 . dead. 2015-04-08.
14. Web site: NEA Writers' Corner: Eric Pankey. https://web.archive.org/web/20080917092229/http://arts.endow.gov/features/writers/writersCMS/writer.php?id=05_14 . 2008-09-17 . dead. National Endowment for the Arts. 2015-04-09.