Matt Donovan

Matt Donovan

Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, a gift of the Drue Heinz Trust/American Academy of Arts and Letters
September 2, 2011–August 6, 2012
Profession
Chair, Department of Creative Writing and Literature, Santa Fe University of Art and Design
Project title
Every Last Thing
Project description

My project for this coming year is twofold. First, I’ll be completing work on my second collection of poems, Every Last Thing. Many of the pieces in this manuscript focus on icons of Americana, and meditate on the temporality and insularity of joy, our means of navigating between bliss and grief, and the ability and failure of language to convey these extremities of emotion. In addition, I’ll be developing a book-length series of lyric essays, many of which employ Japanese haikus as vehicles for meditation on far-flung topics culled from history, art, poetry, and personal narrative.