Philip Dacey's homepage

{ philipdacey }

"Dacey plays, as Frost would have it, for mortal stakes. I love his unsolemn seriousness and his rangy wit." -Stephen Dunn

home

Welcome to the homepage of poet Philip Dacey.

He is the author of eleven full-length books of poems, including The Mystery of Max Schmitt: Poems on the Life and Work of Thomas Eakins (Turning Point Books, 2004), The New York Postcard Sonnets (Rain Mountain Press, 2007), Vertebrae Rosaries (Red Dragonfly Press, 2009), and most recently Mosquito Operas: New and Selected Short Poems (Rain Mountain Press, 2010).

Born (1939) and raised in St. Louis, he has degrees from St. Louis U. (B.S), Stanford (M.A.) and Iowa (M.F.A.). With David Jauss, he co-edited Strong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Forms (Harper & Row, 1985).

The father of three grown children, Emmett, Austin, and Fay, he served in the Peace Corps (Nigeria, 1963-1965) and taught at Miles College, Birmingham, Alabama, in 1966.

For thirty-five years a resident of Minnesota and English professor at Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, he moved in 2004 to New York City, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and in 2012 returned to Minnesota to live with his partner, Alixa Doom, by Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis.

His address is 3101 E. Calhoun Parkway (#607); Minneapolis, MN 55408. Email him at philipdacey@gmail.com.

His most recent chapbook: Three Shades of Green: Poems of Fatherhood (Snark Publishing, 2006), contains work written for his three children between 1976 and 2005.

Other news:

Innisfree Poetry Journal (Spring, 2012) includes a long feature on Dacey, and a recent issue of Verse Wisconsin online includes an interview with him, three of his new poems, and a review of his most recent book.

See a review of Mosquito Operas ; a second of the same; and one of Vertebrae Rosaries, plus one more of the latter (click on "D"). A review of The New York Postcard Sonnets appears in Nov. '07 issue of Peace Corps Writers. Another review of the postcard sonnets (Nov., '08). Read one of the sonnets at Flurry.

"The Neighbors" appears at Poets Against the War. His poem "Mark Morris at Jacob's Pillow," which appeared in Hanging Loose, receives Special Mention in the 2011 Pushcart Prize anthology.

Listen to Garrison Keillor read on his Nov. 3rd Writers Almanac a New York postcard sonnet and on his July 17th show "The Rules."

Poems appear in various recent anthologies: Bigger Than they Appear: Anthology of Very Short Poems (Accents Publishing, 2011), Killer Verse: Poems of Murder and Mayhem (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets, 2011), When Last on the Mountain: The View from Writers Over 50 (Holy Cow! Press, 2010), Eating the Pure Light: Homage to Thomas McGrath (The Backwaters Press, 2009); Don't Leave Hungry: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review (U. of Arkansas Press, 2009) The Pushcart Book of Poetry: The Best Poems from Thirty Years of The Pushcart Prize (2007), and The Book of Irish American Poetry From the Eighteenth Century to the Present (University of Notre Dame, 2007).

Won First Prize in the 2007 "How the West Side YMCA Has Positively Impacted My Life" Essay Contest (New York City). Also won The Ledge Magazine's 2009 $1000 First Prize in Poetry for his poem "The Spiel."

Read online: "On a Photo of His Daughter."
Also online: "Windfall" and "Crepuscule for Joan" and "Plasticize Me"