Robert Hass

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Robert L. Hass (b. March 1, 1941) is a Californian poet whose works are well-known for their West Coast subject and attitude.

Contents

[edit] Life

Hass was born in San Francisco. Encouraged to dedicate himself to his writing by his older brother, Hass grew up with an alcoholic mother. (His mother's alcoholism was a major topic in the 1996 poem collection, Sun Under Wood.) Awe-struck by Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg, among others in the 1950s Bay Area poetry scene, Hass entertained the idea of becoming a beatnik. Hass was interested when the area became influenced by East Asian literary techniques, such as haiku.

Hass is currently married to the poet Brenda Hillman, who teaches at St. Mary's College.

[edit] Career

Hass graduated from St. Mary's College in Moraga, California in 1963, and received his MA and Ph.D. in English from Stanford University in 1965 and 1971 respectively. At Stanford he studied with the poet and critic Yvor Winters, whose ideas influenced his later writing and thinking. His Stanford classmates included the poets Robert Pinsky, John Matthias, and James McMichael. Hass taught literature and writing at the University at Buffalo in 1967. From 1971 to 1989, he taught at his alma mater St. Mary's, at which time he transferred to the faculty of University of California, Berkeley. He as been a visiting faculty member in the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop on several occasions.

From 1995-1997, Hass served two terms as the US Poet Laureate (Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress), and became a well-known champion of literacy, poetry, and ecological awareness. He criss-crossed the country lecturing in places as diverse as corporate boardrooms and for civic groups, or as he has said, "places where poets don't go." Since his self-described "act of citizenship," he has written a weekly column on poetry in the Washington Post. He serves as a Chancellor of the American Academy of Poets, is a trustee of the Griffin Poetry Prize, and works actively for literacy and the environment.

Hass says that he admires beat poet Lew Welch's short poem "Raid Kills Bugs Dead". He commented in an archived online chat that "It's to the point." In Hass' opinion, the five most important poets of the last 50 years were Chilean Pablo Neruda, Peruvian Cesar Vallejo, and Polish poets Zbigniew Herbert, Nobel-winner Wislawa Szymborska, and Nobel-winner Czesław Miłosz.

While at Berkeley, Hass has translated the poetry of his fellow Berkeley professor and neighbor Czesław Miłosz as part of a team with Robert Pinsky and Miłosz.

[edit] Published works

[edit] Poetry

[edit] Critical works

  • "James Wright", Robert Hass, in The Pure Clear Word: Essays on the poetry of James Wright, Dave Smith (editor), Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982, ISBN 0-252-00876-6
  • Twentieth Century Pleasures: prose on poetry, Robert Hass, New York: Ecco Press, 1984, ISBN 0-88001-045-2
  • "Edward Taylor: What was he up to?", Robert Hass, in Green Thoughts, Green Shades: Essays by contemporary poets on the early modern lyric, Jonathan F. S. Post (editor), Berekeley: University of California Press, 2002, ISBN 0-520-21455-2

[edit] Translations

  • The Separate Notebooks, Czesław Miłosz (translated by Robert Hass and Robert Pinsky with the author and Renata Gorczynski), New York: Ecco Press, 1984, ISBN 0-88001-031-2
  • Unattainable Earth, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), New York: Ecco Press, 1986, ISBN 0-88001-098-3
  • Provinces, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1991, ISBN 0-88001-321-4
  • The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson, and Issa, Bashō Matsuo, Buson Yosano, Issa Kobayashi (edited with verse translation by Robert Hass), Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1994, ISBN 0-88001-372-9
  • Facing the River: new poems, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995, ISBN 0-88001-404-0
  • Road-Side Dog, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998, ISBN 0-374-25129-0
  • Treatise on Poetry, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), New York: Ecco Press, 2001, ISBN 0-06-018524-4
  • Second Space: new poems, Czesław Miłosz (translated by author and Robert Hass), New York: Ecco Press, 2004, ISBN 0-06-074566-5
Many consider this his best work.  Since his marriage to the poet, Brenda Hillman, he was begun a downward trend.  This may be due in part to the departure of his good friend Robert Pinsky to Boston.

[edit] Awards

[edit] External links

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