[New-Poetry] US Poets Laureate by gender

[David Graham]

The Consultant/Laureate position dates back to 1937, when Joseph  
Auslander served as our first national poet.  (Who?)  Initially there  
was no fixed term; he served until 1941.    Of the seven poets named  
in the 1940s, three were women:  Louise Bogan, Leonie Adams, and  
Elizabeth Bishop.  After that things got worse for gender equity; the  
next woman named was Josephine Jacobsen, in 1971.  In other words, no  
women at all served in the 1950s or 1960s; par for the course in  
terms of poetic politics in those days.  What's a little eye-opening  
is how little things changed as the women's movement flourished in  
the 1960s and 70s, for Jacobsen in 1971 was it for both those  
decades.  Next was Maxine Kumin in 1981.  Gwendolyn Brooks  came in  
1985.  From 1992 on we've had Mona Van Duyn, Rita Dove, Louise Gluck,  
and now Kay Ryan.  So, nothing close to gender equity even in the  
past 2 decades, when one might expect more attention to such matters.

As measly as representation by women assuredly has been, take a look  
at racial balance if you'd like to see some real disparity. . . .

1937-1941 — Joseph Auslander
1943-1944 — Allen Tate
1944-1945 –Robert Penn Warren
1945-1946 — Louise Bogan
1946-1947 — Karl Shapiro
1947-1948 — Robert Lowell
1948-1949 — Leonie Adams
1949-1950 — Elizabeth Bishop
1950 - 1952 — Conrad Aiken
1952 — William Carlos Williams
1956-1958 — Randall Jarrell
1958-1959 — Robert Frost
1959-1961 — Richard Eberhart
1961-1963 — Louis Untermeyer
1963-1964 — Howard Nemerov
1964-1965 — Reed Whittemore
1965-1966 — Stephen Spender
1966-1968 — James Dickey
1968-1970 — William Jay Smith
1970-1971 — William Stafford
1971-1973 — Josephine Jacobsen
1973-1974 — Daniel Hoffman
1974-1976 — Stanley Kunitz
1976-1978 — Robert Hayden
1978-1980 — William Meredith
1981-1982 — Maxine Kumin
1982-1984 — Anthony Hecht
1984-1985 — Robert Fitzgerald
1984-1985 — Reed Whittemore
1985-1986 — Gwendolyn Brooks
1986-1987 — Robert Penn Warren
1987-1988 — Richard Wilbur
1988-1990 — Howard Nemerov
1990-1991 — Mark Strand
1991-1992 — Joseph Brodsky
1992-1993 — Mona Van Duyn
1993-1995 — Rita Dove
1995-1997 — Robert Hass
1997-2000 — Robert Pinsky
1999-2000 — Special Bicentennial Consultants, 1999-2000: Rita Dove,  
Louise Glück, and W.S. Merwin
2000-2001 — Stanley Kunitz
2001-2003 — Billy Collins
2003-2004 — Louise Glück
2004-2006 — Ted Kooser
2006-2007 Donald Hall
2007-8 Charles Simic
2008--  Kay Ryan


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David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz

Poetry Library:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
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