CURRICULUM VITA
Gray Jacobik
University Professor Emeritus
Connecticut State University System
Eastern Connecticut State University, Professor of Literature (retired)
EDUCATION: 1990 Ph.D., British and American Literature, Brandeis University
1985 M.A., British and American Literature, Brandeis University
1976 B.A., English, Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont
DISSERTATION: Emily Dickinson and Power, under the direction of Allen Grossman
HONORS: Appointed Connecticut State University Professor, May 2003.
AWP Poetry Series Award, 2001, for Brave Disguises, selected by Marilyn
Chin, Pittsburgh University Press, Fall 2002.
“The Skeptics Prayer,” First Prize, Poetry, Third Coast, selected by
David Rivard, Western Michigan University, Fall 2009
Robert Frost Poet-in-Residence, The Frost Place, Franconia, NHe (2002).
Distinguished Faculty of the Year, 2002-2003, Eastern Connecticut State Univ.
X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize for The Surface of Last Scattering, Texas
Review Press, 1999.
“The Circle Theatre” selected by Robert Bly for The Best American Poetry, 1999.
Finalist, Alice Fay diCastagnola Award, Poetry Society of America, 1998.
The Juniper Prize, 1997, University of Massachusetts Press, for
The Double Task (published May 1998).
The Double Task nominated for the James Laughlin Award,
Academy of American Poets, 1997.
The Double Task nominated for The Poets’ Prize, 1999.
The Double Task rated “Outstanding Title” for 1999 by the University
Presses Book Committee, Association of American University Presses.
The Yeats Prize given by the W. B. Yeats Society of New York,
for “The Shabby Truth” and “The Breakfast Room,” 1997.
“Dust Storm” selected by James Tate for The Best American Poetry, 1997.
Artist's Fellowship, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, 1996.
The Emily Dickinson Prize, Universities West Press, 1996.
National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Creative Writing, 1993.
Nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997,
1998, and every year since 2001.
National Poetry Competition, Fifth Prize for “Identity and Presence” (1997);
Commendation for "Figuration" (1995) and "The Breakfast Room" (1996).
Valedictory Speaker at Commencement, 1995.
Jenny McKean Moore Fellow, George Washington Univ., 1976 and 1981.
Second Prize, "Flamingoes," The Nebraska Review, 1987.
Anthology of Magazine Verse & Year Book of American Poetry,
"George Lang," 1984, and "Dust Storm," 1996.
Manuscript finalist (among others): Barnard New Women Poets (1987);
Iowa Prize, University of Iowa Press (1988, 1990 and 1996);
National Poetry Series Competition (1988, 1993 and 1998);
May Swenson Poetry Prize, 1st runner-up (1996).
Nominated more than twenty times for a Pushcart Prize, most recently
in 2010 by editor Alice Clavell, Southern Women’s Review, for “Oysters”.
PUBLICATIONS:
Books: Little Boy Blue: A Memoir in Verse, CavanKerry Press,
in production (due February 2011).
Brave Disguises, University of Pittsburgh Press, Fall 2002.
The Surface of Last Scattering, The Texas Review Press, 1999.
The Double Task, University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.
Sandpainting, Washington Writers' Publishing House, 1980.
Paradise Poems, Omega 3 Press, Washington D.C., 1978 (chapbook)
Jane's Song, Koinonia, Baltimore, 1976 (chapbook).
Anthologies: Among others: The Best American Poetry, 1999 and 1997 (Scribners);
Poets Guide to Birds, 2008 (eds. Kitchen and Kooser); American Poetry Now,
(Ochester) Univ. of Pittsburh Press, 2007; The Best of the Prose Poem,
White Pine Press, 2000; Urban Nature: Poems About Wildlife in the City,
Milkweed Editions, 2000. The Beach Book: A Literary Companion,
Sarabande; Never Before, Four Ways Books; The Autumn House Anthology
of Contemporary American Poetry, 2005; The Writing Path 2, Univ. of Iowa
Press; Visiting Walt: Poems Inspired by the the Life and Works of Walt
Whitman, 2003 and Visiting Wallace, Poems Inspired by the Life of Wallace
Stevens, 2009.
Poems: Over 200 poems published in more than 120 journals including:
The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, North American Review,
Ploughshares, American Literary Review, Ontario Review, Poetry East,
The Prose Poem, Nebraska Review, Connecticut Review, Southern Humanities
Review, Prairie Schooner, Kansas Quarterly, Wisconsin Review, Sycamore Review,
The American Voice, Louisiana Literature, Alaska Quarterly Review.
Articles: “The Ecstatic-Erotic Poetry of Pattiann Rogers,” The Antioch Review,
Vol. 58, No. 3, Summer 2000.
"Emily Dickinson and Eliot's The Mill on the Floss," Higginson Studies,
77 (1990).
Reviews: "Vico And Joyce," James Joyce Quarterly, Spring 1988.
"Catch-as-Catch-Can," My Back Pages (guest column), The Boston Sunday
Globe, Book Reviews, May 12, 1996.
“Resurrection by Nicole Cooley and Passages by Catherine Savage
Brosman,” Louisiana Literature, Summer 1997.
“Ode to the Cold War by Dick Allen” The Antioch Review, Vol. 57, No. 2,
Spring 1999.
“The Various Reasons of Light by Renee Ashley,” The Antioch Review,
Vol. 57, No. 4, Fall, 1999.
Interviews: Tamaqua, Summer/Fall 1990.
“Shades of Gray” by Kyrie O’Connor, Northeast: The Hartford Courant
Sunday Magazine, June 20, 1999.
“4 Better or 4 Words” by Nikki Moustaski, http://www.4better-
or4words.com/gray.htm
TEACHING: University Distinguished Professor, CSU (Eastern), 2003-
Professor, Eastern Connecticut State University 1999-2004
Poet/Mentor, Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing, University of Southern
Maine, 2003-2009
Associate Professor (tenured), Eastern Connecticut State University, 1994-1998
Assistant Professor, Eastern Connecticut State University, 1991-1994
Assistant Professor, Eastern Illinois University, 1989-1991.
Typical Courses Taught:
Senior Seminars: Major Poets of New England; American Landscape Poetry;
Poetry and Voice; Dickinson, Plath, Rich, and Contemporary Poetry by
Women;
Whitman and Dickinson; Yeats and Stevens.
Upper Level Courses: Modern British and American Poetry: Post-Modern
and Contemporary Poetry; Petry of Women;
Lower Division Courses: Poetry (introductory); Literature and Composition;
Creative Writing (Poetry and Fiction, plus advanced tutorials);Women and
Values; Introduction to Women’s Studies.
Graduate Level: Seminars on such topics as The Sublime in Contemporary
American Poetry, Poetic Range; Emily Dickinson and Nature Poetry;
Wallace Stevens and Santayana; & Eloquence.
TEACHING Creative Writing/Poetry
INTERESTS: Post-Modern and Contemporary Poetry
Modern British and American Poetry
Nineteenth Century American Poetry
English Romantic and Victorian Poetry
Poetry of Women
Writing Conference Workshops, Panel Presentations, Talks
READINGS: More than 200 public performances at colleges and universities, for arts
organizations, libraries and professional organizations, radio and tv;
including performances at Dartmouth College, Trinity, The Folger
Shakespeare Library, Univ. of Connecticut, Salem State Univ., Sam Houston
Univ., Illinois State Univ., St. Joseph College, The Sunken Garden Poetry
Festival, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation—NPR, California Institute
for the Arts, Univ. of California, Riverside, Univ. of Hartford, Rhode Island
School of Design, etc.
PAPERS: "Emily Dickinson and the Conventions of Legal Discourse," Northeastern
MLA, Philadelphia, March 26-29, 1993.
"Two American and Two Asian Women Poets: What Their Poems Tells Us,"
Society for Asian & Comparative Philosophy, Wash. D.C., April 1995.
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE:
Chair, English Department, December 1999-January 2002
University Senate, 1992-1994
University Curriculum Committee, 1992-1994
Department Budget, Curriculum and Univ. and Department Search Committees
CREDENTIALS: Complete dossier available from: Dept. of English & American
Literature, Brandeis University, MS 203, Waltham, MA 02254-9110