Riffs and Reciprocities

Stephen Elliot Dunn was a poet and educator. He was born on June 24, 1939 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. He studied history at Hofstra University, graduating in 1962. After finishing school, he worked in advertising. Later he wrote a novel but decided to focus on writing poetry. He earned a master's degree in creative writing from Syracuse University in 1970. Beginning in 1974, he taught at Stockton University and stayed there for many years. He also taught at Wichita State University, University of Washington, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Princeton University.

His poetry was about the small things in life, drawing from his middle-class life experiences. He published fifteen poetry collections and nonfiction works. His first full-length collection "Looking for Holes in the Ceiling" was published in 1974. Some of his other collections included Loosestrife (1996), Local Visitations (2003), Here and Now (2011), Lines of Defense (2014), Keeper of Limits (2014), and Pagan Virtues (2019). He finished his last book, The Not Yet Fallen World, shortly before his death. It is due to be published in May 2022. His nonfiction included Degrees of Fidelity: Essays on Poetry and the Latitudes of the Personal (2018), Walking Light: Essays and Memoirs (reissued 2001), and Riffs and Reciprocities: Prose Pairs (1998).

He won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection "Different Hours" in 2001. The American Academy of Arts and Literature awarded him an Academy Award in Literature. He won the National Poetry Series Prize in 1986 for "Local Time."

Stephen Elliot Dunn, award winning poet, died on June 24, 2021 at his home in Frostburg, Maryland. He was 82.

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