Geoffrey Brock

Summary

Geoffrey Brock (born October 19, 1964) is an American poet and translator. Since 2006 he has taught creative writing and literary translation at the University of Arkansas, where he is Distinguished Professor of English.[1]

Geoffrey Brock
Born (1964-10-19) October 19, 1964 (age 59)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
OccupationPoet
Translator
Professor
SpousePadma Viswanathan
Website
geoffreybrock.com

Biography edit

Brock is the son of poets Van K. Brock and Frances Brock. Born in Atlanta, he grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and as an adult he has lived in Philadelphia, Gainesville (Florida), Washington DC, San Francisco, Tucson, Dallas, London, England, and Florence, Italy. He now lives with his wife, the novelist Padma Viswanathan, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida State University in 1986[2] and a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of Florida in 1998.[3] He also holds an MA and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania.[4]

Brock is the author of three books of poetry, the translator of numerous volumes of poetry, prose, and comics, mostly from Italian, and the editor of The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, which reviewers called "a beautiful, superbly edited anthology"[5] and "so thoughtfully conceived that the experience of reading [it] feels like the experience of reading an intricate novel."[6] His poems and translations have appeared widely in journals and anthologies, including The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The New Republic, Paris Review, Yale Review, PN Review, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and Best American Poetry.

Awards edit

Brock has received numerous honors for both his translations and his own poetry. In 2005, his first book of poems, Weighing Light, won the New Criterion Poetry Prize, judged by David Yezzi, A.E. Stallings, and Charles Martin. In 2014, his second book of poems, Voices Bright Flags, received the Anthony Hecht Prize, judged by Heather McHugh. He has also been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship in poetry from Stanford University, and a Cullman Fellowship[7] from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. His poems have been included in The Best American Poetry and the Pushcart Prize anthologies.

As a translator, Brock has received a National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship, two Raiziss/de Palchi Awards from the Academy of American Poets (one for his translation of Cesare Pavese's Disaffections, the other for his translation of Giovanni Pascoli's Last Dream), the Lois Roth Award from the MLA (for his translation of Disaffections), a translation fellowship from the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation at Brown University, the John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize for Translation from Poetry Magazine, the Lewis Galantière Award from the American Translators Association (for his translation of Umberto Eco's novel The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana), a Guggenheim Fellowship,[8] and the National Translation Award for poetry (for his translation of Giuseppe Ungaretti's Allegria) from the American Literary Translators Association.

Books edit

Poetry edit

  • Geoffrey Brock (2005). Weighing Light. Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 978-1-56663-667-4.
  • Geoffrey Brock (2014). Voices Bright Flags. Waywiser. ISBN 978-1-904130642.
  • Geoffrey Brock (2021). Paolo Febbraro (ed.). Confluenze: poesie scelte. Translated by Paolo Febbraro; Moira Egan; Damiano Abeni. Elliot Edizioni. ISBN 978-8-892760561.

Translations of Poetry edit

Translations of Prose edit

Translations of Comics edit

Anthologies Edited edit

  • Geoffrey Brock, Marian Schwartz, ed. (2004). Two Lines: Power. The Center for the Art of Translation. ISBN 978-1-931883108.
  • Geoffrey Brock, ed. (2012). The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-10538-9.

Selected Online Works edit

  • Eco, Umberto. "The Gorge (short fiction)". The New Yorker. Translated by Geoffrey Brock.
  • Brock, Geoffrey. "Selected poetry, prose, and translations". Poetry Magazine. Poetry Foundation.
  • Brock, Geoffrey. "Some Recent Italian Poems (essay)". Poetry Magazine. Poetry Foundation.
  • Brock, Geoffrey. "Exhuming Vallejo (essay)". Poetry Magazine. Poetry Foundation.
  • Brock, Geoffrey. "Our Emissary of Italian Prose (essay)". New York Review of Books.

References edit

  1. ^ "Geoffrey Brock profile". University of Arkansas Department of English Faculty Directory. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  2. ^ "Geoffrey Brock member page". Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
  3. ^ "Some Alumni & Alumnae of MFA@FLA". English.ufl.edu. 2005-05-29. Archived from the original on 2018-04-30. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  4. ^ "Geoffrey Brock member page". Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
  5. ^ Kaminsky, Ilya. "From Poetry Magazine: Reading List, January 2013". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation.
  6. ^ Longenbach, James. "Among the Tufted Canes: Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry". The Nation. The Nation.
  7. ^ Taylor, Kate. "Library Names New Fellows". The New York Times. The New York Times.
  8. ^ "Geoffrey Brock". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

External links edit

  • Official site
  • Geoffrey Brock's page at the Poetry Foundation
  • Featured Interview and Poetry on Able Muse, Reload Issue
  • University of Arkansas Programs in Creative Writing and Translation
  • The Academy of American Poets
  • From the Fishouse
  • PEN American Center