John Frederick Nims

John Frederick Nims (November 20, 1913 - January 13, 1999) was an American poet and academic.

Life
Nims was born in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1913. He graduated from DePaul University with a B.A., from University of Notre Dame with an M.A., and from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in 1945.

He published reviews of the works by Robert Lowell and W.S. Merwin. He taught English at Harvard University, the University of Florence, the University of Toronto, Williams College, and the University of Missouri.

He was editor of Poetry magazine from 1978 to 1984.

He died in Chicago in 1999.

Recognition
The John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize, for poetry translation, is awarded by the Poetry Foundation.

Awards

 * American Academy of Arts and Letters grant
 * National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities grant
 * Institute of the Humanities fellowship
 * 1982 Academy of American Poets fellowship
 * 1986 Guggenheim Fellowship
 * 1991 Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry.
 * 1993 O.B. Hardison Prize

Poetry

 * Zany in Denim (University of Arkansas Press, 1990)
 * , selected for the New York Public Library's Ninety from the Nineties.
 * The Kiss: A Jambalaya (1982)
 * Knowledge of the Evening (1960), which was nominated for a National Book Award
 * A Fountain in Kentucky (1950
 * Five Young American Poets (1944)
 * A Fountain in Kentucky (1950
 * Five Young American Poets (1944)
 * Five Young American Poets (1944)

Translated

 * Euripides: Four Tragedies (1958)
 * Metamorphoses (1965)
 * Sappho to Valery: Poems in Translation (1971)
 * Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry (1983)
 * Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry (1983)