Guest of the ilb 2005
Robert Hass was born in San Francisco in 1941 and
studied Literature at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California and at
Stanford University, where he completed his doctoral studies in 1971.
After intermittently considering a career as a politician or novelist,
he decided in favour of poetry, a decision influenced by Beat Poets of
the nineteen fifties such as Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder. In 1973
his first volume of poetry, »Field Guide«, appeared and was awarded the
esteemed Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. The poems are marked by a
concern for nature, and describe with sensual, succinct language the
Californian landscape as well as the simple moments of life. With
these, the thematic field of Hass’s increasingly complex and
experimental poetic works was established. For his second volume of
poetry, »Praise« (1979), he received the William Carlos Williams Award
and his most recent poetry collection, »Sun Under Wood« (1996), was
awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award.
In 1995 Hass married his second wife Brenda Hillman, a professor and
poet who belongs to the group of »language poets«. That same year Hass
was named Poet Laureate of the United States by the Library of
Congress. He filled this position for two terms as a committed
ambassador of culture and especially of poetry. Hass was co-founder of
»River of Words«, a non-profit organisation for the diffusion of
environmental awareness, as well as editor of »River of Words. Images
and Poetry in Praise of Water« (2003), an anthology of works by
children and young adults. In 1997 Hass was named »Educator of the
Year« by the North American Association on Environmental Education. The
following year appeared »Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life«, a
collection of short reviews of poetry, first published in the
»Washington Post« as columns by the Poet Laureate.
For his award-winning volume of essays on poetry, »Twentieth Century
Pleasures« (1984), Hass received a National Book Critics Circle Award.
He is also highly regarded as a translator, among other works of haikus
by the Japanese classicists Bashô, Buson and Issa. Additionally he has
translated the poems of the Polish Nobel-Prize winner Czesùaw Miùosz
who likewise taught at the University of Berkeley, California where
Hass currently teaches English Literature with an emphasis on nature
and the environment. He is also active as Chancellor of the Academy of
American Poets. The first German translations of Hass’s poems appeared
recently under the title of his third volume of poetry, »Die Wünsche
der Menschen« (2005; t: Human wishes). The poet lives with his wife and
three children in Berkeley.
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