MacArthur Fellows Program

Brad Leithauser

Poet and Writer | Class of February 1983

Title
Poet and Writer
Location
Yoshida Honmachi, Japan
Age
30 at time of award
Area of Focus
Poetry
Published February 1, 1983

About Brad's Work

Brad Leithauser is a poet, essayist, journalist, and novelist who is distinct in his mastery of various modes from lyric, to narrative, to epigram and even riddle. 

Leithauser’s poems exhibit an unforced use of rhyme, syllabics, and other technical means, as well as a commitment to traditional form.  His books of poetry include Hundreds of Fireflies (1982), Cats of the Temple (1986), The Mail from Anywhere (1990), The Odd Last Thing She Did (1998), and Lettered Creatures (2004). He is the author of six novels, Equal Distance (1985), Hence (1989), Seaward (1993), The Friends of Freeland (1997), A Few Corrections (2001) and Darlington's Fall(2002),as well as a collection of essays entitled Penchants and Places (1995).  Leithauser is also the editor of The Norton Book of Ghost Stories (1994) and No Other Book: Selected Essays of Randall Jarrell (1995).  His essays, reportage, and book reviews appear regularly in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly.

Biography

Since 1987, Leithauser has been a member of the faculty at Mount Holyoke College, where he teaches composition, fiction-writing, modern European fiction, and light verse.  He shares the Emily Dickinson Lectureship in the Humanities with his wife, the poet Mary Jo Salter.

Leithauser received a B.A. (1975) and a J.D. (1980) from Harvard University.

Last updated January 1, 2005.

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