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poetry. Roberson's exploration of
African heritage and black culture, influenced by poets like Langston Hughes and Léopold Sédar Senghor, allows him to talk about wide variety of personal and cultural histories. Early interests in painting and a deep dive into visual art at the Pittsburgh Museum contributed to the visual dimensions of his poetry, evident in his experiments with visual poetry. Engaging with literary traditions and drawing from his extensive travels, including journeys to Nigeria and motorcycle trips across the United States, Roberson's poetry reflects a spirit of adventure and a deep respect for diverse landscapes.
124:(born December 26, 1939) is a distinguished American poet, celebrated for his unique diction and intricacy in exploring the natural and cultural worlds. His poetic voice is informed by a background in science and visual art, coupled with his identity as an African American. Roberson has been an active poet since the early 1960s and has authored eight collections, including "Atmosphere Conditions" (1999) and "City Eclogue" (2006). Among his many honors are the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award (1998) and the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award (2008).
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Community
College. His main occupation once out of college, however, was in higher education, in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania as a lecturer and professor until 1973, when he began teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Roberson then transitioned to an administrative position there in the 1980s when his tenure was denied - the same time his father died of cancer, his marriage was dissolving, and his writings were being turned down. In 2002, he was forced to retire, momentarily, due to his own battle with cancer.
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research assistant in
Pennsylvania, Alaska's Kodiak and Afognak Islands, and Bermuda; and a cross-country motorcycle trip with his friends Andy Welsh and Dick Vandal in 1970. He graduated that same year and later completed graduate work at Goddard College. His travels were plenty and stimulating for his poetry; he also visited West Africa (Nigeria) in 1980 and the Amazon jungle and the Andes in South America (Peru, Ecuador) on two climbing trips with the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh, in 1963 and 1975.
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University in New Jersey in 1973. During his thirty-year tenure at
Rutgers, he held various administrative positions while continuing to indulge his passion for adventure travel, poetry, and motorcycle journeys. In 2003, Roberson relocated to Chicago after leaving Rutgers University. He taught at Columbia College and later became Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Center for the Writing Arts at Northwestern University in 2006.
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resonating." In the context of
Roberson's work, this often accompanies the African American experience, with the weight of trauma intertwined with the memories or traces he explores. Roberson's poetry thus presents a nuanced and compelling engagement with the multifaceted dynamics of race and memory (Horton, 2015).
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it fades into a privileged invisibility." Roberson acknowledges the constructed nature of race and the role of skin color in shaping identity. Within this construct, he highlights the importance of both forgetting and remembering, and the resulting complexities of navigating these dynamics (Horton, 2015).
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its residuals compels language to transcend its usual boundaries, as it "forces language to fail, to fall out of itself, to become something other than itself." Within the poem, finite meanings are momentary freeze-frame instances, crystallizing thoughts only to release them from their sequestered state.
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Notably, in his collection "To See the Earth Before the End of the World," Roberson crafts a vivid illustration of how race and the concept of color are addressed. He guides his poems through what he terms the "magic hour," where each section engages with aspects of coloring and light (Horton, 2015).
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Roberson's exploration of race is grounded in the recognition that race is a social construct, as articulated by
Reginald Shepherd, where "blackness as an identity, assumed or imposed, is a social construct, just as whiteness is. But blackness is the marked construct, while whiteness is the default:
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Roberson delves into the intricate terrain of race and its implications within his poetry. Roberson's approach to this complex theme is characterized by a poetic process rooted in the disruption of language. This disruption takes shape through fragmented narratives and the skillful use of enjambment
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Roberson, the oldest of four boys, was born and raised in the
Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, drawn to visual art and aspiring to be a painter. His family attended African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. His father owned a garbage collection company, eventually brought to ruin by
185:
His race, aesthetic, and areas of focus were obstacles for
Roberson - but also tools he weaved together in his art. Popular subjects of his poetry include nature (urban as well as natural settings), politics, history, and human behavior, often woven and tied together within each piece. His travels
169:
Though he began reading poetry in high school (to the dismay of his tenth-grade teacher, who claimed that "the art of poetry had died"), Ed
Roberson only began writing as an undergraduate student, fascinated by sonnets. As editor of Pitt's student literary journal, a few of his early poems appeared
232:
In "Chromatic
Sequences," the spatiotemporal phenomena unfold, allowing space, time, and connotative meanings to converge through distraction, which restructures the narrative based on polemic structures. Roberson's use of language fragmentation and double-jointed syntax in discussions of race and
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At one point, before completing his degree, Roberson took a break from his studies and held numerous overlapping jobs, working in the Pittsburgh steel mills, for an advertising firm called Film Graphics, as a tank diver for the Pittsburgh AquaZoo, and as an English literature teacher for Allegheny
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After graduating in 1967, Roberson embarked on a diverse career, including work in a Pittsburgh steel mill, an advertising graphics firm, and as a diver in Pittsburgh's public aquarium. He taught English at the University of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Community College before joining Rutgers
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As a first-generation student, he studied chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, researching limnology, his interests in literature and art left in the background. While in college, his interest and submersion into nature was fed by work-study in forested northern Pennsylvania; his role as a
236:
Throughout his poetry, Roberson employs history and race as grounding points to incite moments of distraction, reflection, and potential epiphany through memory. This memory is intricately tied to Jacques Derrida's concept of "trace," which "erases itself in presenting itself, muffles itself in
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Roberson's use of conceptual photography goes beyond challenging constructed notions of black and white; it also serves as a method of chronicling history. His poetry, with its dexterity of language and layered meanings, creates an experiential tapestry rather than a traditional narrative. This
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The "magic hour," particularly drawing from cinematography terminology, captures these moments of fragmented distraction, akin to a camera's shutter, sequestering and then releasing images. The spatiotemporal moments within Roberson's poetry present a multifaceted examination of history and the
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Ed Roberson's poetic tapestry is intricately woven with a myriad of influences, creating a unique and multifaceted body of work. His background in earth sciences, particularly limnology, gave him a profound appreciation for the natural world, reflected in the precision and vivid imagery of his
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as he was graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. From the start, Roberson proved his merit, with many of his early books published by renowned publishers like the University of Pittsburgh Press. However, his fame did not skyrocket until much later into his life.
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In 2004, he moved to Chicago from New Jersey, having overcome the battle. There, he taught at Columbia College, the Center for the Writing Arts, and the University of Chicago, and was most recently employed at
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He married Rhonda Wiles, who graduated from Rutgers University Douglas College and Hofstra Law School in New York in May 1973. They had a daughter, Lena, in 1976.
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to imbue end-words with multiple meanings, invoking a spatiotemporal freeze-frame moment, momentarily suspending space and time (Horton, 2015).
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fallacies inherent in the concept of skin color, shaped by social constructs, all within a language that is both agile and revealing.
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controlled distraction steps beyond convention to challenge prevailing ideas about color in American society.
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and experiences, current events, and societal norms and issues all serve as inspiration for his poems.
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Crown, Kathleen; Roberson, Ed (2010). "'DOWN BREAK DRUM': An Interview with Ed Roberson (Part 1)".
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organized crime. Roberson attended George Westinghouse High School and graduated in 1959.
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Edwards, Brent Hayes (2010). "BLACK SERIAL POETICS: An Introduction to Ed Roberson".
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Keller, Lynn; Wagstaff, Steel; Roberson, Ed (2011). "an interview with ED ROBERSON".
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there, but in 1962, his first poem of note, "I Must Be Careful", was published in
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Leonard Schwartz; Joseph Donahue; Edward Halsey Foster, eds. (1996).
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Ed Roberson's career officially began in 1970 with the release of
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Shockley, Evie (2010). "On the Nature of Ed Roberson's Poetics".
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Primary trouble: an anthology of contemporary American poetry
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University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970. ISBN 978-0-8229-5214-5.
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University of Pittsburgh Press, 1975. ISBN 978-0-8229-5263-3.
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Stephen Henderson Critics Award for Achievement in Literature
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Northwestern University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-8101-2892-7.
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2008 Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America
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Morrissey, Patrick; Peart, Andrew (2016). "Introduction".
361:, University of Iowa Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-87745-510-3.
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Wesleyan University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-8195-6950-9.
1018:"Ed Roberson Wins Jackson Poetry Prize, $ 70,000 Award"
412:"From: Picking Up the Tune, the Universe and Planets",
345:, Wesleyan University Press, 2022. ISBN 978-0819580108.
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From: Picking Up the Tune, the Universe and Planets
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373:, Sun & Moon Press, 2000. ISBN 978-1557133922.
367:Singing Horse Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-935162-42-4.
280:1998 Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award
195:. Roberson has written eleven books of poetry.
437:Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology
388:To See the Earth Before the End of the World,
351:Talisman House, 1998. ISBN 978-1-883689-79-7.
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1062:Ed Roberson: Poems and Profile at Poets.org
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610:. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh
287:finalist, Academy of American Poets’, for
253:1970 selected for Pitt Poetry Series, for
189:His work appears in the literary magazine
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454:Lyn Hejinian; David Lehman, eds. (2004).
349:Just In: Word of Navigational Challenges,
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971:"PEN Literary Award winners announced"
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456:"Ideas Gray Suits Bowler Hats Baal"
1127:21st-century American male writers
1117:20th-century American male writers
1056:Poetry Lectures, Poetry Foundation
969:Maggie Galehouse (March 1, 2016).
926:Roberson, Ed (2002). "Road Ikon".
420:"VI. Cape Journal: At Sand Pile",
396:Atelos, 2006. ISBN 978-1891190230.
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996:"2016 PEN Literary Award Winners"
883:Roberson, Ed (2006). "The Door".
355:Lucid Interval as Integral Music,
1092:University of Pittsburgh faculty
299:of the Poetry Society of America
1102:Northwestern University faculty
1087:University of Pittsburgh alumni
439:. University of Georgia Press.
315:2020 Jackson Poetry Prize from
365:The New Wing of the Labyrinth,
208:Intersection of Race in Poetry
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1137:African-American male writers
462:The Best American Poetry 2004
359:Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In
304:PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry
261:Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In
97:PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry
795:Woodland Pattern Book Center
435:Melissa Tuckey, ed. (2018).
259:1995 Iowa Poetry Prize, for
165:His Relationship With Poetry
23:Charles Edward (Ed) Roberson
1122:21st-century American poets
1112:20th-century American poets
1038:"Brandeis University Press"
122:Charles Edwin (Ed) Roberson
32:1939 (age 84–85)
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1097:Rutgers University faculty
149:as a Writer-in-Residence.
310:Academy of American Poets
174:and won the Grand Prize.
16:American poet (born 1939)
422:Electronic Poetry Center
414:Electronic Poetry Center
78:University of Pittsburgh
69:United States of America
558:Contemporary Literature
406:When Thy King is a Boy,
250:for "I Must Be Careful"
179:When Thy King is a Boy,
147:Northwestern University
1132:African-American poets
466:. Simon and Schuster.
382:Closest Pronunciation,
343:Asked What has Changed
297:Shelley Memorial Award
267:National Poetry Series
255:When Thy King is a Boy
246:1962 Grand Prize from
940:10.1353/cal.2002.0169
897:10.1353/cal.2006.0065
854:10.1353/cal.2010.0047
761:10.1353/cal.2010.0014
686:10.1353/cal.2010.0036
640:. 59/60 (4/1): 8–14.
570:10.1353/cli.2011.0032
371:Atmosphere Conditions
289:Atmosphere Conditions
285:Lenore Marshall Award
271:Atmosphere Conditions
248:The Atlantic Monthly,
998:. PEN. March 1, 2016
801:on November 29, 2010
518:ProQuest Biographies
172:The Atlantic Monthly
128:Life & Education
37:, Pennsylvania, U.S.
1107:American male poets
1023:Poets & Writers
317:Poets & Writers
485:. Talisman House.
265:1998 selected for
952:Project MUSE
909:Project MUSE
492:978-1-883689-29-2
473:978-0-7432-5757-2
446:978-0-8203-5315-9
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107:Rhonda Wiles
1077:1939 births
934:(4): 1022.
725:January 25,
721:. Poets.org
614:January 25,
429:Anthologies
273:(chosen by
66:Citizenship
58:Nationality
1071:Categories
526:2137915416
501:References
400:Etai-eken,
324:Book Award
312:Fellowship
199:Influences
42:Occupation
35:Pittsburgh
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928:Callaloo
885:Callaloo
862:40962665
842:Callaloo
805:June 30,
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674:Callaloo
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578:41472502
522:ProQuest
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574:JSTOR
332:Works
308:2017
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295:2008
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