SJSU Poets

Lecturer
SJSU alum; PhD from UC Santa Cruz
Per Professor Alan Soldofsky - she helped make San Jose a center for poetry through the many workshops she led and her work at SJSU and the San Jose Poetry Center
Quarterly Book of Literature for 1997 - information on Dr. Clark and her second book of poems - When I Kept Silence (1988) + the poem "Needle's Eye."

Collins, Gloria (faculty)

Daley, Edith (friend of campus and Markham, circa 1917 - 1933)

State College Times of November 23, 1933 (pg 4) includes a poem she wrote for Edwin Markham. The poem was included in her collection of poems - The Angel in the Sun. That book was published by The Pacific Short Story Club in 1917, which was produced through the Normal School.

de Araujo, Virginia P. (faculty 1975 - ??)

Professor of English
Helped start the MFA program.
BS from SJSU (1970) and PhD from Stanford (1976)
Often taught composition (ENG 1A and 1B). Per Gloria Collins, she thought that to write a good poem, one had to know grammar.

Elliott, Ellen Coit (guest lecturer 1932)

July 27, 1932 - read her poems and discussed modern poetry at a tea held in her honor in the Home Making Building at the College.
Wife of Dr. Orrin Leslie Elliott, former Registrar at Stanford
Some of her works were published in the Poetry Society of London's "A Poets Fellowship"

Evans, Kate (faculty)

Friends - poets who participated in poetry events of SJSU

Greathead, S. Estelle (registrar 1905 - 1923)

Hass, Robert (faculty)

Taught at SJSU prior to being named U.S. Poet Laureate
U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995 - 1997
Currently teaches at UC Berkeley
Biography from the Academy of American Poet + a few poems
Biography and a few poems from Modern American Poetry site at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Holloway, Roberta C. (faculty September 1, 1946 to January 30, 1970)

Information on poetry activities she endowed at UC Berkeley
Earned these degrees from UC Berkeley: AB in 1923, MA in 1927, PhD in 1945
Dr. Holloway took a sabbatical in spring 1960. She spent the leave in London doing research on John Donne's Third Satyre and the prose fiction of George Grissing. While in London, she used the British Museum and the library at London University.
Entry from San Jose State College Bulletin for 1947-1948 lists Dr. Holloway as an Assistant Professor of English. "A.B., 1923, M.A., 1926, Ph.D. 1945, University of California. Teaching fellow in English, University of California, 1923-25, '27, '28. Instructor in English, Visalia High School and Junior College, 1929-33 and 1934-35. Instructor in Subject A, University of California, 1935-46 and Summer Sessions 1944, '45, '46. At San Jose since 1946."
Some of her poetry was published in Poetry magazine:
- "Sorrow" - March 1924
- "Maze at Midnight" and "Wake for Another Day" - Feb. 1933
- "Remembering Atlas," "The Wide Day," "The Lovely Children" and "Invitation to Many Voices" - July 1937
9/4/02 - 1/30/78

Karim, Persis (faculty)

Kizer, Carolyn (Lurie Fellow, Spring 2001)

Lewandowski, Lou (faculty 1969 - 2000)

Maio, Samuel (faculty 1990 - present)

BA 1977 University of Utah; MA 1979 University of Utah; PhD 1986 University of Southern California
Information from the College of Humanities & The Arts

Markham, Edwin (alum 1872)

McPherson, Sandra (alum)

Moody, Neli (faculty)

Peterson, Nils T. (faculty 1963 to 1999)

Professor English
BA 1954 Central College of Kentucky; MA 1958 Rutgers University
Click here for biographical information from the Guild for Psychological Studies
Information from Poetry Center San Jose
11/23/33 -

Phelan, James D. (friend of SJSU; endowed the Phelan Award for student creative writings)

Sanderson, Virginia Somes (faculty 1922 - ??)

Soldofsky, Alan (faculty 1988 - present)

"Ways and Ways to San Jose" - Mr. Young's poem for SJSU's 150th Anniversary and its Legacy of Poetry
California Poet Laureate
Al Young's website
Academy of American Poets

This page last updated April 3, 2008

Comments?
Please contact anellen@sjsu.edu