Carl Dennis is the author of 13 previous works of poetry, as well as a collection of essays, Poetry as Persuasion. In 2000 he received the Ruth Lilly Prize for his contribution to American poetry. His 2001 collection Practical Gods won the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Buffalo, New York.
Praise for the work of Carl Dennis: Carl Dennis is a poet who has valuable things to say - about faith (or its absence) in the modern world, fear, and regret - in ways that are personal and universal at the same time. . . .His acute observations about the private and public realms reach beyond mere statement to subtle levels of informed art. . . .Dennis constantly surprises. -Joseph Parisi, in announcing Dennis as the winner of the 2000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize The surfaces of Dennis's poems may seem relatively simple, but always one is drawn beneath that surface to the poem's real depth, to richnesses . . . his poems help make me more alive, more human. -Thomas Lux, Agni Dennis eases the reader out of accustomed modes and seeing and perceiving, heightening awareness not only of limitations, but of imaginative possibilities of dealing with them. -Bruce Bennett, The New York Times Book Review Dennis continues to eschew verbal flourish in favor of ethical force, extending the body of work that by now approaches the status of wisdom literature . . . He reminds us that poetry is not only an aesthetic but also a moral activity. It's another way of thinking as well as feeling, another way to reason through the choices we've made or will make. -James Scruton, Valparaiso Poetry Review As George Steiner argues, our ability to articulate that which does not exist, 'the counterfactual,' makes us human . . . and grants us extraordinary power. It is this power that Carl Dennis harnesses in his poems. -Stephen Kampa in Literary Matters