W. D. Snodgrass correspondence with Daniela Gioseffi

Poet W. D. Snodgrass was born William De Witt Snodgrass on January 5, 1926, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. He attended Geneva College (1943–1944 and 1946-1947) prior to graduating from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in 1949, M.A. in 1951, and M.F.A. in 1953. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Letters from Allegheny College.

W. D. Snodgrass's first book, a collection of poetry titled Heart's Needle (New York: Knopf, 1959) was awarded the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Since that publication Snodgrass has produced over thirty books of poetry, translations, and criticism.

In addition to Heart's Needle, the poet's other published collections of poetry include After Experience (1968), The Führer Bunker: A Cycle of Poems in Progress (1977), Remains (1970), and The Death of Cock Robin (1989). Among his other publications are the translations Gallows Songs by Christian Morgenstern (1967), Six Troubadour Songs (1977), and Traditional Hungarian Songs (1978); as well as the volume of criticism, In Radical Pursuit: Critical Essays and Lectures (1975). A major retrospective collection of Snodgrass's poetry, Selected Poems, 1957–1987, was published by Soho Press in 1987.

Snodgrass has also contributed poetry, essays, reviews, and translations to many major journals, newspapers, and anthologies. His work appears in such anthologies as Reading Modern Poetry (1955), New Poets of England and America (1957), New World Writing (1957), and Theodore Roethke: Essays on the Poetry (1965). His cycle of poems, The Führer Bunker, was adapted as a play and performed off–Broadway at American Place Theatre on May 26, 1981.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, the poet has been honored with such awards as the Hudson Review Fellowship (1958), the Longview Award (1959), the Poetry Society of America Special Citation (1960), the Guinness Award (1961), the Ingram Merrill Foundation Award (1968), and the Centennial Medal of Romania (1977). Snodgrass was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1972, and was made a Fellow of the Academy of American Poets in 1973.

Following faculty assignments at Cornell University (1955-1957), University of Rochester (1957-1958), Wayne State University (1959-1967), Syracuse University (1968-1977), and Old Dominion University (1978-1979); W. D. Snodgrass was professor of Writing and Contemporary Poetry at the University of Delaware from 1979 to 1994.

Poet and novelist Daniela Gioseffi was born February 12, 1941, in Orange, New Jersey. She was educated at Montclair State College, receiving her B.A. in 1963, and at Catholic University of America, receiving a M.F.A. in 1965.

Gioseffi's career has included working as a professional actress in stock resident and touring companies, in addition to writing and performing multi-media programs of poetry and music. Her critically acclaimed multi-media presentation, "The Birth Dance of Earth," first produced in New York in 1972, was based on poetry and music which she composed. Other writings by Gioseffi produced for the stage include "The Golden Daffodil Dwarf and Other Works" (1973) and "Fathers and Sons," a play based on Ivan Turgenev's novel (1973).

In addition to multi-media productions, Gioseffi has written short stories, poetry, a novel, and works of nonfiction. Her published works include The Great American Belly Dance (novel, 1977), Eggs in the Lake (poems, 1979), and Earth Dancing: Mother Nature's Oldest Rite (nonfiction, 1980).

Her poetry and short stories are also represented in a number of anthologies as well as appearing in Nation, Chelsea, Ambit, Quadrant, Dialog, Choice, Paris Review, Antaeus, New York Quarterly, Minnesota Review, Ms., and Modern Poetry Studies.