Cougar News Staff
Poet, literary critic and University of Houston English professor Edward Hirsch was awarded a $295,000 "genius grant" Monday from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The grant, one of 29 awarded across the country this year to artists, writers, scientists and community leaders, is an unrestricted award used in support of the individual. The stipends are between $220,000 and $375,000, based on the age of the recipient, and are given over a five-year period, allowing talented people to work in their fields.
Hirsch joined the UH faculty in 1985 and has served as director of the creative writing program here. He has written five books of poetry, and his other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most recent book is On Love.
Along with teaching for a semester each year at UH, Hirsch also writes a column for the American Poetry Review and is poetry editor for the literary magazine DoubleTake.
Hirsch said that the money will allow him to do what he was meant to do: share his love of poetry.