Goldbarth received his B.A. from the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle campus, in 1969 and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 1971. Early in his career, Goldbarth won the Poetry Northwest Theodore Roethke Prize, and since then he has published more than twenty-five collections of poetry, including Saving Lives (2001) and Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology (1991), both of which won the National Book Critics Circle award for poetry. Goldbarth is the only poet to have received this award twice. Last year saw the publication of a large collection: The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems 1972-2007 (Graywolf Press).
Goldbarth is known for his conversational, "talky" style and his eclectic tastes. A self-confessed "hoarder" of everything from 1950s outer space toys to old manual typewriters, he is a playful writer with a capacious and discerning intellect. There is always room in his poetry to include both the utterly human and the cosmic divine.
The Maurice Brown Poetry Reading is sponsored by the Department of English and the College of Arts and Sciences, with additional support from the Department of Art and Art History, as a tribute to Professor Maurice F. Brown, who taught at Oakland University from 1961 until his death in 1985. The Maurice F. Brown Collection of contemporary Poetry in Kresge Library honors his memory.
For more information, contact the Department of English at (248) 370-2250 or visit the English Department Web site.