Claudia Emerson
| Claudia Emerson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
January 13, 1957 Chatham, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | December 4, 2014 (aged 57) Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Colon cancer |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
University of Virginia University of North Carolina at Greensboro |
| Occupation | Poet, professor |
| Spouse(s) | Kent Ippolito (2000-2014; her death) |
| Awards |
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2006) Poet Laureate of Virginia (2008–10) Guggenheim Fellowship (2011) |
Claudia Emerson (January 13, 1957 – December 4, 2014) was an American poet. She won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection Late Wife, and was named the Poet Laureate of Virginia by then-Governor Tim Kaine in 2008.
Emerson was born on January 13, 1957 in Chatham, Virginia and graduated from Chatham Hall preparatory school in 1975. She received her BA in English from the University of Virginia in 1979 and her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1991.
Emerson published five poetry collections through Louisiana State University Press: Pharaoh, Pharaoh (1997), Pinion: An Elegy (2002), Late Wife (2005), Figure Studies: Poems (2008), and Secure the Shadow (2012).
A sixth collection, titled Impossible Bottle, was released posthumously in March 2015.
In addition to her collections, Emerson's work has been included in such anthologies as Yellow Shoe Poets,The Made Thing,Strongly Spent: 50 Years of Shenandoah Poetry, and Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia.
Emerson served as poetry editor for the Greensboro Review and a contributing editor for the literary magazine Shenandoah. In 2002, Emerson was Guest Editor of Visions-International (published by Black Buzzard Press). On August 26, 2008, she was appointed Poet Laureate of Virginia, by then Governor Timothy M. Kaine and served until 2010. In 2008, she returned to Chatham Hall to serve as The Siragusa Foundation's Poet-in-Residence.
She taught at several colleges including Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. She spent over a decade at the University of Mary Washington, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, as an English professor and the Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry.
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