Mark Strand, a former professor at the U and a poet laureate, died recently at the age of 80.
Strand taught creative writing and literature at the U from 1981 to 1993. During his time teaching, he won a MacArthur Fellowship — a grant that encourages creativity in different work fields. During his life, people described him as a kind and humanistic man.
In 2013, Strand told Inscape, a literary journal, “If every head of state and every government official spent an hour a day reading poetry, we’d live in a much more humane and decent world.”
Paisley Rekdal, a professor of English at the U, said Strand was one of the “most significant” voices in poetry in the last century and was directly responsible for translating Latin American, Brazilian and Mexican poets’ work into English. She said through his work, he was able to change the “aesthetic direction” of contemporary American poetry.
“His intelligence and his great sense of the poetic line is vital to anyone interested in poetry,” Rekdal said. “The poetry community has suffered a great loss with his recent passing.”
During his lifetime, Strand was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry collection “Blizzard of One.” Recently, he also published a book of his poems called “Collected Poems.” It was one of ten finalists for the National Book Award this year.
Katharine Coles, now a professor of English and creative writing, had Strand as a teacher in her post-graduate education at the U. When Coles came to Salt Lake City, she took a year off to save money but wanted to take one class with Strand. After looking over some of her poems, she said Strand allowed her to take the class. She worked with him again while earning her Ph.D.
“He was an extremely elegant person and a little shy,” Coles said.
Coles said many thought his reserved nature was haughtiness; however, after getting to know Strand, Coles said he took some time to warm up to someone before he became “extraordinarily witty.” She said he also was quiet until he knew exactly what he wanted to say.
Her favorite work of Strand’s is his poem “The Continuous Life,” written around 1990. She said this also was about the time Strand won the MacArthur grant, when she said his poems became more “exuberant” and “fulfilled.”
In 1998, Strand was interviewed saying death was inevitable, and he felt himself getting closer to it. The topic began to take on more prominence in his poetry, too.
“I say ‘ha ha’ to death all the time in my poems,” he said in an interview.
Strand died from liposarcoma cancer on Nov. 29. His funeral will likely take place in New York City, where he lived much of his life.
The U’s English Department has a memorial page dedicated to him where people can post kind words at english.utah.edu/news/strand.php.
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