John Bensko Explained

John Bensko
Birth Place:	Birmingham, Alabama
Occupation:	American poet, professor
Language:	English
Alma Mater:	Florida State University
Movement:	20th century poetry
Spouse:	Cary Holladay
Partners:	-->
Awards:	Yale Series of Younger Poets (1981)
Portaldisp:	yes

John Bensko is an American poet who won the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1981; he taught in the MFA program at the University of Memphis, along with his wife, the fiction writer Cary Holladay.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Career

Bensko has an MFA in creative writing from The University of Alabama (1979) and a Ph.D. in 20th-century poetry and narrative technique from Florida State University (1985). He was a student of Thomas Rabbitt in poetry and Barry Hannah in fiction, and classmate of Clark Powell:

Our weekly workshops were simple - take the latest purple mimeographed worksheet of student's poems, and have everyone critique the poems. I once wrote a four-line poem that had an epigraph from Moby Dick that was almost an entire paragraph. I read the poem. Silence. Then everybody started laughing. It was that bad. Another student named John Bensko made a comment that broke everybody up: "This poem is a bit top-heavy."^[4]

Before coming to the University of Memphis, he taught at The University of Alabama, Old Dominion University, Rhodes College, and, as a Fulbright Professor in American Literature, at the University of Alicante, Spain. He has been the Coordinator of the MFA program at the University of Memphis and was Director of the River City Writers Series for the 2005–2006 season. Through the U of M Study Abroad Office, he launched a summer creative writing program at the University of Alicante, Spain.^{[5] [6]}

His work has appeared in Georgia Review, Iowa Review, New England Review, New Letters, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, AGNI, Critical Quarterly, The Southern Review, The Southern Poetry Review, Shenandoah, Chelsea, OnEarth, Epoch, The Gettysburg Review, TriQuarterly, Poet Lore, The Journal, Prairie Schooner, and many other periodicals.

Personal life and family

A former resident of Memphis along with his Virginia-born wife Cary Holladay,^[1] John Bensko was born in Birmingham, Alabama.^[7] He is the son of John Bensko Jr., in turn the son of John (longtime mayor of Brookside, Alabama) and Julia Bensko; other relatives include uncle Robert Ray Bensko Sr. (1936–2012) and cousins Robert Ray Bensko Jr., Kristy Bensko, and Jennifer Bensko Ha.^[8]

Awards

• Yale Series of Younger Poetry Award for 1981 (selected by Richard Hugo)
• McLeod-Grobe Poetry Prize for 2000
• Anita Claire Scharf Prize for 2013

Selected works

• The Wild Horses of Asseateague Island, Poetry, May 1983^[9]
• The Lost Watch, The Kenyon Review, Winter 2004, Volume XXVI Number 1^[10]
• Union Sniper, Poetry Southeast, Spring 2006
• Persimmon, Chelsea, Verse Daily 2006
• Blind Sight, AGNI online, August 2007
• Revenge of the Weeds: Talking with Poet John Bensko, OnEarth podcast, June 25, 2008
• Bensko . John . Wooden Floor, and: Our Side of the Tracks . Prairie Schooner . 2008 . 82 . 1 . 41–43 . 10.1353/psg.0.0014 . 72346913 . .
• Dawn, Ploughshares, Winter 2006-7^[11]

Books

• Book: Visitations. University of Tampa Press. 2014. 978-159732-116-7.
• Book: Sea Dog Stories. Graywolf Press. May 1, 2004. 978-1-55597-399-5 .
• Book: The Iron City. University of Illinois Press. May 19, 2000. 978-0-252-06871-3 .
• Book: The Waterman's Children. University of Massachusetts Press. 1994. 978-0-87023-902-1.
• Book: Green Soldiers. Yale University Press. March 1981. 978-0-300-02644-3. registration.

Anthologies

• Book: The made thing: an anthology of contemporary Southern poetry. registration. 28. Leon Stokesbury. University of Arkansas Press. 1999. 978-1-55728-579-9.
• Book: The Wound and the Dream . Cary Nelson. University of Illinois Press . 2002. 978-0-252-07070-9.

See also

• American poetry

External links

• John Bensko, Poet of the Month, October 2005

Notes and References

1. Web site: NEA Writers' Corner: Cary Holladay . 2009-03-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090407044844/http://www.nea.gov/features/writers/writersCMS/writer.php?id=06_08 . 2009-04-07 . dead .
2. Web site: John Bensko. Poets & Writers. 28 May 1981 .
3. Web site: John Bensko, Department of English. 2019-10-04. 2020-05-26. University of Memphis.
4. Web site: The Harbinger. James Dickey (1923-1997) - A Memory. www.theharbinger.org. 9 February 2022 .
5. Web site: John Bensko. 2020-05-26. johnbensko.net.
6. Web site: English :: John Bensko :: University of Memphis . 2014-06-20 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131004183900/http://www.memphis.edu/english/people/bensko.php . 2013-10-04 .
7. Web site: Poet of the Month: John Bensko . poetrynet.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20071023210618/http://poetrynet.org/month/archive/bensko/intro.html . 2007-10-23.
8. Web site: Crestview Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home | Adamsville, AL Funeral Home & Cremation. www.cmgfh.com.
9. Web site: May 1983 | Poetry Magazine. Poetry. Foundation. February 25, 2021. Poetry Foundation.
10. Web site: The Kenyon Review . 2009-03-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080725090708/http://www.kenyonreview.org/issues/winter04/index.php . 2008-07-25 . dead .
11. Web site: Read by Author | Ploughshares.