Dr.
Jonathan Holden
Kansas Poet Laureate: FY 2006, 2007
Jonathan Holden, appointed Kansas' first poet laureate on July 1, 2005, has been recognized as one of America's foremost poets. He is a University Distinguished Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan.
As poet-in-residence at K-State, Holden is available as a resource to students and members of the community who might seek his guidance for their literary ventures. To be a poet-in-residence at a university, the author has to have published a great deal of work and won various awards. Jon Holden has won numerous awards, with prizes ranging up to $20,000. Twice he has received a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. In 1995, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa chose Holden's poetry collection, "The Sublime," for the Vassar Miller Prize.
Holden has published 20 books, all monographs, in addition to more than 190 poems published in professional journals. In 1986, he received the Kansas State University Distinguished Faculty Award. In 2000, he was a member of the committee that selects the Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry.
Holden earned his bachelor's degree in 1963 in English from Oberlin College, his master's degree in 1970 in English with creative writing from San Francisco State College, and his doctorate in 1974 in English from the University of Colorado. He has been at K-State since 1978. |
