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Rod Jellema
“What is new and
comparatively rare in poets
is [Jellema’s] discovery that
a lyrical impulse and a
meditative urgency may
alternate, feed off each
other, disguise themselves
as each other… [His poems]
show a technique forged
from confrontation with the
demands of content to
become formal.  That is
what good poets can do and
less good poets can never
arrange.”
William Matthews
Recently released
Incarnality: The Collected Poems


























Regarding Rod Jellema
Poet, teacher

Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, where he was the founding
director of the Creative Writing Program, Rod Jellema began working as a poet
in the middle of his career as a teacher of modern literature, at age forty.  He
subsequently produced five books of poems, the latest of which, Incarnality:
The Collected Poems ,was published in October 2010.  The four earlier books
are A Slender Grace, Something Tugging the Line, The Lost Faces and The
Eighth Day: New and Selected Poems.

He was twice awarded poetry writing fellowships by the National Endowment
for the Arts, and was many times a resident fellow at Yaddo.  He edited and
translated two books of poetry from the North Sea language of Frisian:  County
Fair: Poems from Friesland Since 1945 and The Sound that Remains: a
Historical Collection of Frisian Poetry.  For this work he was awarded
Friesland's highest literary honor, the Pieter Jelles prize, and the Columbia
University Translation Prize, 1986.

Rod grew up in Holland, Michigan and in Ann Arbor, Michigan: he was educated
at Calvin College (B.A.).  And received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh
(Scotland).  He has spent most of his adult life in the Washington, DC area, with
summers spent in his native dunelands on Lake Michigan.

Much of his work as a poet culminates in his latest book, Incarnality. On the
way to this one, James Wright noted in the earlier books " a set of poems
entirely remarkable for the physical pungency of their language, their muscular
and sensitive rhythms...Some of the poems are positively harrowing in their
effectiveness, the truth and depth of their feeling, which, of course, can only be
revealed by the most careful, intelligent craftsmanship."

Currently he is back at work on a long-time project: a book on the history of
early New Orleans jazz called Really Hot: A New Hearing for Old New Orleans
Jazz (co-authored with the late Gordon Darrah).  

For more on Rod Jellema, please go to
Library of Congress Interview/Reading (download)
Eerdmans Publishing Author's Page
Dryad Press
"This moving body of work tells us what is
holy in Rod Jellema's world--not spirit alone,
nor flesh alone, but their melding; not wind
alone, but blown hair and leaves and
"swimsuits tossed on the vine to dry."  In
this world, a word is a thing-- a thing
breathed through, infused with breath and
life.  Just so, these poems make of words a
life, and they invite us to celebrate and
remember what abounds and abides, what
matters, what sings."
                               Margaret Gibson
Upcoming readings

November 19th,
Saturday,
Poetry in the Park –
Poetry Reading and
Open Mic, 7-9pm
Starbucks’
503 Ritchie Hwy.
Severna Park, MD

December 7th,
Wednesday,
University of MD
Writers Here and Now
Poetry Reading 7-9pm
Ulrich Recital Hall,
Tawes Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD