Paul Zimmer (poet)

Paul Zimmer  (born 1934) is an American poet and editor.

Life
Zimmer was born in Canton Ohio. He failed college and worked in a steel mill. From 1954 to 1955 Zimmer served in the United States Army as a journalist. The Ribs of Death, his first book, was published in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree from Kent State University in 1968.

He has directed the university presses at Georgia, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, and helped found the Pitt Poetry Series. His papers are held at Kent State.

Writing
Melinda Wilson, Cold Front: "It is not often that a “new and selected” documents the progressions, departures, and returns of a writer’s consciousness as lucidly and profoundly as Paul Zimmer’s Crossing to Sunlight Revisited (the long-awaited sequel to 1996’s Crossing to Sunlight: Selected Poems). Zimmer’s newer poems are at the start of the book; they chronicle his ascension into, what seems to be, comfortable old age. Note that “old” is not my word here; in fact, in his preface, Zimmer informs us that he is “no longer an aging poet or an older poet.” He says, “I am an old poet.”

Awards

 * Open Book Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors
 * American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
 * 1998 National Poetry Series, for The Great Bird of Love
 * Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State University in 2004.
 * Two NEA fellowships
 * Helen Bullis Memorial Award
 * Two Pushcart Prizes
 * An Ohioana Award in 2005

Poetry

 * The Ribs of Death, October House, 1967
 * The Republic of Many Voices, October House, 1969
 * A Seed in the Wind, Three Rivers Press, C.M.U., 1975
 * Family Reunion: Selected and New Poems (1983)
 * The Great Bird of Love (1989)
 * Family Reunion: Selected and New Poems (1983)
 * The Great Bird of Love (1989)