Jay Wright is the author of eight books of poems, including The Homecoming Singer (1971), Dimensions Of History (1976), Selected Poems (1987), And Boleros (1991).

In 1996 the Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets awarded Wright the Academy's 62nd Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement. "Over the past quarter-century," reads J.D. McClatchy's citation, " Jay Wright's books have appeared like summer lightning: sudden, unexpected, brilliant in the surrounding dark." His poems, which reflect the landscapes and cultures of Africa, Latin America, and the American west, are "miracles of visionary energy, moralized lyricism, and a buoyant, complex mythmaking."

Wright's other honors include a Rockefeller Fellowship; an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; an American Academy of Arts and Letters Literary Award; and a MacArthur Fellowship. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, educated at the University of California at Berkeley and Rutgers University, and resides in Vermont.

Poetry Center Reading:

Spring 2000