THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JAMES TATE W INS 1995 TANNING PRIZE
$100,000 FOR MASTERY IN THEART
OF POETRY
LARGEST ANNUAL LITERARY
PRIZE IN THEUNITED STATES
New York, September 19, 1995 -- The Academy of American Poets announced today
that James Tate has been selected as the recipient of the 1995 Tanning Prize, the largest
annual literary prize in the United States. The $100,000 award recognizes outstanding and
proven mastery in the art of poetry. The judges for the 1995
Tanning Prize were the poets John Ashbery, Jorie
Graham, and Charles Simic.
Born in Kansas City in 1943, James Tate is one of the most
important and original poets of his generation. His twelve collections of poetry include The
Lost Pilot (1967), The Oblivion Ha Ha (1970), Hints to Pilgrims (1971), Absences
(1972), Viper Jazz (1976), Riven Doggeries (1979), Constant Defender
(1983), Reckoner (1986), and Distance from Loved Ones (1990). In 1992, Mr.
Tate received the Pulitzer Prize for his Selected Poems. His most recent
collection, Worshipful Company of Fletchers, published by The Ecco Press, was
selected for the 1994 National Book Award. Two poems from the book, "Head
of a White Woman Winking" and "Loyalty", are
provided here, as are eight new poems that have not been
previously published. James Tate lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he teaches at the
University of Massachusetts.
James Tate writes:
"As a poet, I am trying to pinpoint a moment of clarity and truth in the rush of
events and the cascade of memories, using all the elements and devices of language
available to me. But truth is an elusive monster, and sometimes a poet must bend or
squeeze the language to bring it into view. I'm willing to follow a poem anywhere so long
as it promises some insight or revelation."
In his citation for the Tanning Prize, John Ashbery writes of
James Tate:
"It seem especially appropriate that James Tate has won this year's Tanning Prize.
Dorothea Tanning, who established the prize in 1994, was born in the Midwest and moved to
Paris with her husband Max Ernst, one of the founders of the Surrealist movement in
painting; Tanning's own paintings are Surrealist, sometimes dark and haunted, but also
tinged with eroticism and a witty sensuality. Tate, born in Kansas City, landed in New
England where he has developed a homegrown variety of Surrealism almost in his own
backyard, which figures frequently in his poetry. Both Tanning and Tate refute the idea of
Surrealism as something remote from daily experince, a hermetic art for a privileged few.
For both, Surrealism is something very like the air we breathe, the unconscious mind
erupting in one-on-one engagements with the life we all live, every day. Tate's
originality was confimred almost thirty years ago when his book The Lost Pilot won
the Yale Younger Poets Award. (A line from that book read: 'Everything is relevant. I call
it loving.') More recently, his books have gained him the Pulitzer Prize and the National
Book Award, testifying to the broad appeal of his wonderfully eccentric and generous
poetry. 'The lost pilot' is still taking us to places we never knew existed, places where
we want to stay."
The Tanning Prize was established in 1994 by a gift to the Academy from the painter
Dorothea Tanning. The first recipient of the award was W.S.Merwin.
TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW OR FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Matthew Brogan: (212) 274-0343, poets@tmn.com
or
Susannah Greenberg at (212) 727-7271, bookbuzz@aol.com
This page was created on behalf of the Academy of American Poets by 
a service of Susannah Greenberg Public Relations.
Return to Book Buzz home page
Return to home page of The Academy of American Poets
|
