Albert Goldbarth
Albert Goldbarth (born January 31, 1948) is an American poet. He has won the National Book Critics Circle award for "Saving Lives" (2001) and "Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology" (1991), the only poet to receive the honor two times. He also won the Mark Twain Award for Humorous Poetry, awarded by the Poetry Foundation, in 2008. Goldbarth is a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The poetry of Albert Goldbarth is widely praised, and he has published extensively, with more than 30 collections to his credit, including poetry and  essays. He is known for his prolific production, his gregarious tone, his eclectic interests and his distinctive "talky" style. In his review of "Kitchen Sink", David Baker of "The Kenyon Review" says: "Albert Goldbarth is ... a contemporary genius with the language itself ... There is simply no contemporary poet like him." Goldbarth was awarded The Chad Walsh Poetry Prize by the Beloit Poetry Journal in 1994. Goldbarth received his BA from the University of Illinois in 1969 and his MFA from the University of Iowa in 1971. Goldbarth taught at Cornell University and from 1977 to 1987 at the University of  Texas at Austin. From 1987 to 2018, he served as the Adelle V. Davis Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Wichita State University, which houses the Goldbarth Archive in Ablah Library.