Introduction
Dan Chiasson (born May 9, 1971, in Burlington, Vermont) is an American poet, critic, and journalist. He is the author of five books. His name is usually pronounced "chase-in."
Life
Chiasson grew up in Burlington, Vermont. He graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College (1993), and from Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D in English and was awarded the Whiting Foundation Award in the Humanities.
He is currently an associate professor of English at Wellesley College. Chiasson is also affiliated with Boston University's Master of Fine Arts program, where he has taught workshops, and with NYU's program in Paris, France. He lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
He is the poetry critic for The New Yorker, as well as a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, where he writes about poetry, pop music and film. He was poetry editor, and later advisory editor, of the Paris Review. His poems have been translated into many languages, including German by Jan Wagner. His "Natural History" was published as "Naturgeschichte" at Luxbooks, a publishing house focused on American poetry in bilingual editions. In the UK, he is published by Bloodaxe Books.
He is on the editorial board of the literary magazine The Common, based at Amherst College.
Honors and awards
- 2008 Award in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry
- 2004 Whiting Award
- Pushcart Prize