Carl Dennis was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and attended both Oberlin College and the University of Chicago before completing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Dennis has published 12 books of poetry, including Night School (2018), Another Reason (2014), Callings (2010), Practical Gods (2001), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Meetings with Time (1992). Known for its casual, plainspoken narrative style that makes its home in the everyday life of the American middle class, Dennis’ poetry is a quiet meditation on the world around him.
Dennis has received several honors and distinctions, including Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was the recipient of the 1989 Oscar Blumenthal Prize, the 1995 Bess Hokin Prize, the 1997 J. Howard and Barbara M.J. Wood Prize, and the 2000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Dennis taught at the University of Buffalo from 1966 to 2001, after which time he served as the school’s artist-in-residence. He also taught in the M.F.A. program in creative writing at Warren Wilson College. Dennis currently lives and works in Buffalo, New York.
Portrait by Mary Richert
