John Burt

Background

John Burt was born on November 22, 1955, in Washington, District of Columbia, to William C., an attorney, and Margery Davies Burt, a clerk.

Education

John Burt attended Yale University, where he got Bachelor of Science, in 1977, and Ph.D., in 1983.

Career

John Burt writes narrative poetry, often in blank verse, often on historical subjects.

It is his aim to reclaim for poetry some of the territories it has ceded to fiction. He has an interest in American history and politics, and much of his poetry reflects those interests.

Burt also has a career as a scholar. He edited The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren and worked at work on a study of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Achievements

• John Bert repeatedly became the winner of the prestigious competitions. His works were favored by critics.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Victory

    (John Burt’s Victory is a suite of narrative poems explori...)

  • Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and Moral Conflict
  • The Way Down
  • Robert Penn Warren and American Idealism

Politics

In politics, Burt is a Democrat.

Views

Burt has tried to make some sense of the meaning of freedom and of the dark events of this century in his writings. He considers that he always writes poetry which even those who don’t think of themselves as readers of poetry may nevertheless ‘make something of.’

Membership

Burt is a member of the Modern Language Association of America, American Library Association, ALSA.

• Modern Language Association of America

• American Library Association

• ALSA

Interests

• Computers

Connections

Father:

William C. Burt

Mother:

Margery Davies Burt