Richard Howard

Richard Howard, a widely celebrated poet, translator, educator, and critic, served as Professor of Professional Practice in Columbia’s Writing Program from 1995 to 2015 and Professor Emeritus from 2015 to 2022. He was the author of fifteen books of poetry, including The Damages (1967), Fellow Feelings (1976), No Traveller (1989), Trappings (1999), Talking Cures (2002), Without Saying (2008), A Progressive Education (2014) and, most recently, RH©HJ and Other American Writers (2020). In 1970, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his third book of poems, Untitled Subjects (1969). An acclaimed prose stylist, his works of critical nonfiction include Alone with America: Essays on the Art of Poetry in the United States Since 1950 (1969), Preferences (1974), and Paper Trail: Selected Prose, 1965-2003 (2004). He published over 150 translations from French, including works by Roland Barthes, André Breton, Emil Cioran, Michel Foucault, André Gide, and Stendhal; in 1983, he received the National Book Award for his translation of Baudelaire’s Fleurs du mal. He also received the PEN Translation Medal and the French-American Prize and was designated a Chevalier de L’Ordre National du Mérite by the French government in 1982. A former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, he was a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters from (1983-2022), and served as President of PEN America Center (1978–1980) as well as Poet Laureate of New York State (1994–1997). Poetry editor of The Paris Review from 1992 to 2004, he was honored with the magazine’s prestigious Hadada Award in 2017. His additional honors and distinctions included the Levinson Prize, the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters Literary Award, as well as fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. He died on March 31, 2022, survived by his husband, the painter David Alexander.