Background
Ford Swetnam was born on August 30, 1941, in Alexandria, Virginia, United States.
- Photos
- Works
Gallery of Ford Swetnam
198 College Hill Rd, Clinton, NY 13323, United States
Hamilton College where Ford Swetnam received his Bachelor of Arts degree.
Gallery of Ford Swetnam
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, United States
Cornell University where Ford Swetnam received his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
src="/web/img/loading.gif" data-src="/web/show-photo.jpg?id=2793014&cache=false" alt="Other photo of Ford Swetnam" class="gallery__img" height="167"
Other photo of Ford Swetnam
198 College Hill Rd, Clinton, NY 13323, United States
Hamilton College where Ford Swetnam received his Bachelor of Arts degree.
src="/web/img/loading.gif" data-src="/web/show-photo.jpg?id=2793016&cache=false" alt="Other photo of Ford Swetnam" class="gallery__img" height="167"
Other photo of Ford Swetnam
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, United States
Cornell University where Ford Swetnam received his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
- Photos
- Works
book
Ghostholders Know
(Ghostholders Know is a collection of poems many of which ...)
Ghostholders Know is a collection of poems many of which have a western setting and celebrate mountain climbing and skiing as well as the challenges of firefighting. Others treat the joys of marriage and domesticity. The book includes the complete text of Swetnam's long poem about war, chance, and literature, titled 301.
https://www.amazon.com/Ghostholders-know-Poems-Ford-Swetnam/dp/0937179132
1999
Ford Swetnam
Edit ProfileEducation
Ford Swetnam obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree at Hamilton College in 1963. He continued his studies at Cornell University where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1964 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1967.
Career
Ford Swetnam was known as an English professor at Idaho State University where he worked from 1976, the year he came to Pocatello from his home state of Virginia.
In addition to teaching, he was a poet. In Another Tough Hop (1992), Ford Swetnam offers twenty-three pieces well worth reading for their sustained quality, varied form, and distinctly western materials and themes. Most of Swetnam's poems in this book are situated in the Intermountain West. Their subjects range from the environment to art, from sports to domesticity. Their themes focus on personal relationships and responsibility: the responsibility to wives, lovers, friends, siblings, children, parents; to art; and especially to the land. The second book, the poetry collection named 301 was published in 1995.
Ghostholders Know (1999) captures the dusty world of an Idaho only the true inhabitants know, the loneliness of mountain towns hours out of big cities, railroad towns where the trains pass through carrying the waste of others and goods going elsewhere. Swetnam's poems of moose, mountains, lightning, fighting fires, and making a life out of the dust are told in a language that could only emerge out of a relationship with the landscape of the American West. Swetnam's last book Offer a Cup to a Friend was published in 2002. Swetnam also edited with Richard Ardivger the fiction anthology High Sky over All (1990).
Achievements
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Ford Swetnam was an outstanding educator as well as a unique voice among local poets. He was Idaho State University's Distinguished Teacher of 2001 and the recipient of other awards for teaching from students and faculty at the university. In his honor, the Ford Swetnam Poetry Prize was established.
Works
book
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Ghostholders Know
(Ghostholders Know is a collection of poems many of which ...)
1999
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Ghostholders Know
Views
Quotations: "I have been writing for a long time, sharing in the process a ride and a laugh with lots of good people."
Membership
Ford Swetnam was a member of the Pocatello Valley Fire Department.
Personality
Physical Characteristics: The cause of Swetnam's death was cancer.
Quotes from others about the person
"He helped so many people become better than they were, or who they wanted to be." - Will Peterson
Connections
Ford Swetnam was married to Susan H. Swetnam.
- Wife:
- Susan H. Swetnam
Susan H. Swetnam taught in Idaho State University's Department of English and Philosophy from 1979 until her retirement in 2013. Over the years she has authored numerous articles and seven books, including both personal essays and scholarship, most recently A Season of Little Sacraments (2016) and Books, Bluster, and Bounty which won the Idaho Library Association's award for Idaho Book of the Year in 2012. Now she is the owner and therapist of Balsamroot Massage.
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Born
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Died
April 8, 2002 (aged 60) -
Resting place
Mountain View Cemetery, Pocatello, Idaho, United States -
Nationality
United States
Education
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1963
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1963 - 1964
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1964 - 1967
Career
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1976 - 2002