Well-versed in her field

In the spring of 1998, Jay Halio, then professor of English at UD, invited Marilyn Nelson to campus to conduct a poetry reading. Halio knew that Nelson was a noted poet and a member of the University of Connecticut faculty, but he had no idea she also was a former student who remembered him well.

Nelson, whose name had changed in the intervening years, had been an undergraduate at the University of California when Halio taught there, and she says he left a lasting impression on her.

When Nelson arrived on the UD campus for the reading, a surprised Halio remembered her. He introduced her to other members of the English department, which she says she found to be "very welcoming and impressive."

By 2002, Halio had convinced Nelson, who that year also was named the state of Connecticut's poet laureate, to come to Delaware to teach. She won the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002-03, so her first year at UD was her fellowship year, which she spent working on a long poem, The Cachoiera Tales.

Nelson describes the work, which is expected to be published in 2005, as "an African-American riff on Canterbury Tales," written in rhymed iambic pentameter couplets like Chaucer's work. Cachoiera is a small town in northern Brazil, which Nelson visited during her fellowship with her brother, sister and a group of friends. The Cachoiera Tales is based on their travels and the stories and tales they told to one another during the trip.

Before coming to UD, Nelson taught for 24 years at the University of Connecticut, including a semester as a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where she taught a class on poetry and meditation in the spring of 2000. She says she found the rigid military environment difficult but that she made strong connections with her students and respected her fellow professors, most of whom were military officers.

"It was such an intense experience," she says. "It was hell, and I hated it while I was there, but I loved every one of those cadets. And, I was proud and honored to be the colleague of such distinguished officers. In retrospect, it was life-changing and probably the best thing I have done in my teaching career."

Nelson says she developed lasting relationships with many of the cadets she taught and keeps in touch with roughly a third of her class. "They are the most idealistic students I have ever had," she says. "They were so disciplined, smart and really talented."

In June 2002, Nelson was chosen as Connecticut's poet laureate by a committee of five literary professionals who selected her for the prestigious position from among a dozen nominees. The poet laureate's mission is to create programs throughout the state that bring attention to poetry. Some of Nelson's initiatives include placing poetry books in waiting rooms at hospitals and doctor's offices and implementing a poetry auction.

For the auction, Nelson and five other poets from Connecticut offered their services to the highest bidder, with the proceeds going toward funding a poetry reading series. The winning bid for Nelson's services was made by the parents of a bride-to-be, for whom she wrote a poem about their daughter's wedding.

Nelson has written eight books of poetry, including three that were finalists for the National Book Award. Those are The Homeplace; The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems, which won the 1998 Poets' Prize; and Carver: A Life in Poems, named a Newbery Honor Book. She also has written two children's collections and several chapbooks, which are small books of verse, and has contributed to numerous anthologies and literary collections.

--Dean Geddes, AS '05