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Rod Jellema
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“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
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
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 four books of poems, the latest of which, A Slender Grace,
a post-retirement comeback, was published in September of 2004. The three
earlier books are 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, A Slender Grace. 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). His Incarnality: The Collected Poems
of Rod Jellema, in process, will be published by Eerdmans in 2009.
For more on Rod Jellema, please go to
Library of Congress Interview/Reading (download)
Festival on Faith and Writing
Eerdmans Publishing
Dryad Press
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 four books of poems, the latest of which, A Slender Grace,
a post-retirement comeback, was published in September of 2004. The three
earlier books are 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, A Slender Grace. 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). His Incarnality: The Collected Poems
of Rod Jellema, in process, will be published by Eerdmans in 2009.
For more on Rod Jellema, please go to
Library of Congress Interview/Reading (download)
Festival on Faith and Writing
Eerdmans Publishing
Dryad Press
Contact Rod Jellema
rodjellema@yahoo.com
rodjellema@yahoo.com
