Elton Glaser

Born: 1945

Ohio connection: Birth

Akron

A longtime resident of Ohio, poet Elton Glaser was born and raised in Louisiana.  He earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Glaser’s collections of poetry include Relics (1984); Tropical Depressions(1988), which won the Iowa Poetry Prize; Color Photographs of the Ruins (1992); Winter Amnesties (2000); and Pelican Tracks(2003). His sixth collection, Here and Hereafter (2005), received the Arkansas Poetry Award.  In 2013 Glaser published The Law of Falling Bodies and Translations from the Flesh.

Glaser is distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Akron, where he has taught for many years.  He was also a former director of The University of Akron Press, and former editor of the Akron Series in Poetry.  Glaser has lived in Akron, Ohio since 1972.

Awards:
Glaser has won numerous awards, including the 1987 Iowa Poetry Prize for Tropical Depressions, the 2006 Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council, and the 2006 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry, for Here and Hereafter.  His awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Ohio Arts Council.