Peter Sears (poet)

Peter Sears
BornMay 18, 1937 (1937-05-18)
New York City
DiedJuly 20, 2017(2017-07-20) (aged 80)
OccupationPoet
NationalityAmerican
Alma materYale University

Peter H. Sears (May 18, 1937 – July 20, 2017)[1][2] was an American poet based in Oregon. In 2014, he was named the seventh poet laureate of the U.S. state of Oregon.[3]

Literary career

Sears was born in New York City on May 18, 1937.[1] He graduated from Yale University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.[3] He won the 1999 Peregrine Smith Poetry Competition and the 2000 Western States Poetry Prize for his book of poems, The Brink.[4] His first book-length collection, Tour, was published in 1987. He has also published four chapbooks of poetry and two teaching books, Secret Writing and Gonna Bake Me a Rainbow Poem. His work has been published in many magazines and literary journals, widely anthologized and included in the radio series, The Writer's Almanac. His most recent full-length book is titled Green Diver.[3]

Sears founded and managed the Oregon Literary Coalition[5] and co-founded the non-profit organization Friends of William Stafford.

Sears moved to Oregon in 1974 to teach creative writing at Reed College,[6] he also taught at the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College and Portland Community College. He was active in the publishing company Rubberstampmadness Inc. in Corvallis and Community of Writers in Portland.

References

  1. ^ a b Hughes, Henry (October 1, 2018). "Peter H. Sears (1937–2017)". The Oregon Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  2. ^ "Peter Sears Obituary - Oregon - Tributes.com". www.tributes.com. Retrieved 2017-07-23.
  3. ^ a b c Baker, Jeff (April 25, 2014). "Peter Sears named Oregon's new poet laureate". The Oregonian. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  4. ^ "Poetry: A chat with Corvallis poet Peter Sears". The Oregonian. April 24, 2010. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  5. ^ "OBA Past Winners - Past Special Awards Recipients". Literary Arts, Inc. Archived from the original on October 4, 2006. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  6. ^ Biespiel, David (2006). Long journey: contemporary Northwest poets. Oregon State University Press. p. 318. ISBN 9780870710988.

5. Portland Community College Online Staff Directory (June 17, 2016)https://www.pcc.edu/scripts/sdquery.pl?all=peter.sears%40pcc.edu