J.D. McClatchy

J.D. McClatchy. Courtesy Poets House.

J.D. "Sandy" McClatchy (born 1945) is an American poet, literary critic, and academic. He is editor of the Yale Review and president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Life

McClatchy was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1945.

He was educated at Georgetown and Yale, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1974.

He lives in Stonington, Connecticut, and New York. His domestic partner is graphic designer Chip Kidd.

Career

McClatchy is an adjunct professor at Yale University and editor of the Yale Review. He also edits the "Voice of the Poet" series for Random House AudioBooks.

He has written texts for musical settings, including 8 opera libretti, for such composers as Elliot Goldenthal, Daron Hagen, Lowell Liebermann, Lorin Maazel, Tobias Picker, Ned Rorem, Bruce Saylor, and William Schuman.

With UCLA professor and poet Stephen Yenser, McClatchy serves as co-executor for the literary estate of James Merrill (1926–1995).

Recognition

His honors include an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1991). He has also been one of the New York Public Literary Lions, and received the 2000 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award.

His book Hazmat (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) was nominated for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize.

In 1999, he was elected into the membership of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in January 2009 he was elected president. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1987), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Academy of American Poets (1991). He served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1996 until 2003.

Publications

Poetry

• Scenes from Another Life. New York: Braziller, 1981.
• Stars Principal. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
• Kilim. Sea Cliff Press, 1987.
• The Rest of the Way. New York: Knopf, 1990.
• Ten Commandments. New York: Knopf, 1998.
• Hazmat. New York: Knopf, 2002.
• Division of Spoils: Selected poems. Tomorden, Lancashire, UK: Arc Publications, 2003.
• Mercury Dressing. New York: Knopf, 2009.

Non-fiction

• White Paper: On contemporary American poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
• Twenty Questions (Posed by poems). New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
• American Writers at Home (with photos by Erica Lennard). New York: Library of America, 2004.

Translated

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Magic Flute. New York: Abbeville Press, 2000.
• Georges Bizet, Carmen. New York: Abbeville Press, 2001.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Seven Mozart Librettos: A verse translation. New York: Norton, 2010.

Edited

• Anne Sexton: The artist and her critics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1978.
• James Merrill, Recitative: Prose. Berkeley, CA: North Point Press, 1986.
• Poets on Painters: Essays on the art of painting by twentieth-Century poets. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.
• The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
• Emily Dickinson, Woman in White: Selected poems of Emily Dickinson. London: Folio Society, 1991.
• Robert Creeley, The Poetry of Song: Five tributes to Stephen Sondheim (edited with George Robert Minkoff). New York: Poetry Society of America, 1992.
• The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
• Christmas Poems (edited with John Hollander). New York: Knopf, 1999.
• On Wings of Song: Poems about birds. New York: Knopf, 2000.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poems and Other Writings. Library of America, 2000.
• James Merrill, Collected Poems (edited with Stephen Yenser). New York: Knopf, 2001.
• Bright Pages: Yale writers, 1701-2001. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.
• Love Speaks Its Name. New York: Knopf, 2001.
• Poems of the Sea.New York: Knopf, 2001.
• Eavan Boland, Horace: The Odes. Princton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
• James Merrill, Collected Novels and Plays (edited with Stephen Yenser). New York: Knopf, 2002.
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, Selected Poems. New York: Library of America, 2003.
• James Merrill, Collected Prose (edited with Stephen Yenser). New York: Knopf, 2004.
• James Merrill, The Changing Light at Sandover, with the stage adaptation Voices from Sandover (edited with Stephen Yenser). New York: Knopf, 2006.
• James Merrill, Selected Poems] (edited with Stephen Yenser). Hew York: Knopf, 2008.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

Audio / video

An Evening of Mozart with Poet J. D. McClatchy 92Y Readings

Editor of "The Voice of the Poet" series

• W.H. Auden. New York: Random House Audio, 1999.
• Sylvia Plath. New York: Random House Audio, 1999.
• James Merrill. New York: Random House Audio, 1999.
• Elizabeth Bishop. New York: Random House Audio, 2000.
• Robert Lowell. New York: Random House Audio, 2000.
• Anne Sexton. New York: Random House Audio, 2000.
• Randall Jarrell. New York: Random House Audio, 2001.
• John Ashbery. New York: Random House Audio, 2001.
• Five American Women. New York: Random House Audio, 2001.

Except where noted, information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

See also

• List of U.S. poets
• List of literary critics

External links

Poems

• J.D. McClatchy profile & 3 poems at the Academy of American Poets.
• J.D. McClatchy b. 1945 at the Poetry Foundation.
• J.D. McClatchy at PoemHunter (1 poem, "A Winter without Snow)"

Audio / video

• J.D. McClatchy (b. 1945) at The Poetry Archive
• J.D. McClatchy at YouTube
• J.D. McClatcy on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at Poets House

Books

• J.D. McClatchy at Amazon.com

About

• J.D. McClatchy at Yale University
• Daniel Hall (Fall 2002). "J.D. McClatchy, The Art of Poetry No. 84". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/356/the-art-of-poetry-no-84-j-d-mcclatchy.