Susan Wood Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

Susan Wood Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

BY PHILIP
MONTGOMERY

Rice News Staff

May 7, 1998

In her recent poetry, Susan Wood, Rice professor
of English, explores topics such as growth, grieving, and the
experiences of women ranging from a pioneer at the turn of the
century to a homeless woman in a laundry.

In April, Wood, who readily admits she is not a
prolific writer, received a Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry, which,
combined with funding from Rice, will allow her to take a one-year
leave from teaching to devote herself to the completion of her third
manuscript of poems.

“Very few scholars, and even fewer poets and
artists, are selected for this great honor,” said Judith Brown, dean
of the School of Humanities. “A Guggenheim signals recognition of
ongoing achievement. It is the mark of a mature scholar and artist.
We are very proud of Susan Wood. This is the second year in a row
that a faculty member from the English department has received a
Guggenheim and it is the seventh awarded to one of our current
faculty. We congratulate Susan on her poetic vision and the
department for having nurtured it.”

This year, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation selected 168 artists, scholars and scientists to receive
fellowships out of more than 3,000 applicants.

Donald Justice, a poet, said there are two kinds
of poets: the ox who writes every day and the cat who doesn’t write
as often.

“I’m a cat, definitely, definitely, because I
don’t write every day,” Wood said. “I’m hoping this year I’m going to
change that, because I really want to finish this book. It’s been
around a long time.”

Wood is the author of three books: “Bazaar” (Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1980), “Campo Santo” (Louisiana State
University Press, 1991), and a chapbook published in a limited
edition titled “Counting the Losses” (Jones Alley, Colorado Springs,
1995). “Campo Santo” was named the Lamont Poetry Selection for
1991.

Her poems have appeared in numerous publications,
including the Antioch Review, Antaeus, the Missouri Review, The New
Yorker, Ploughshares, Poetry and the Kenyon Review.

Poet Edward Hirsch, who teaches at the University
of Houston, said he liked Wood’s first book, but “Campo Santo” stands
out as a real advance. Hirsch is the author of four books of poems,
including “Wild Gratitude” (Knopf, 1984), which won the National Book
Critics Circle Award.

“She’s developed from one strength to an even
greater strength until I think her work will really come to full
maturity with this third book,” Hirsch said.

Wood said her work has changed. The obvious
changes are longer lines and more lines in each poem. Her poems are
also more philosophical than in “Campo Santo.”

“I feel the great middle age entering my poems,”
said Wood, who is 51 years old. “You just get more philosophical as
you get a little older.”

To illustrate the change, she pointed to her new
poem “Leafing,” which will appear in the Kenyon Review this year. The
poem is 13 pages long, much longer than early works, which were
frequently lyrical and focused upon an event or a moment.

“Now,” she said, “there are more moments. I would
characterize my poems as more meditative than they used to be, and
they tend to be a little longer.”