Brigit Pegeen Kelly (1951 – October 14, 2016) was an American poet and teacher. Born in Palo Alto, California, Kelly grew up in southern Indiana and lived much of her adult life in central Illinois. An intensely private woman, little is known about her life.
Career Kelly was the winner of numerous awards for her poetry, including the Yale Younger Poets award, a Whiting award, and, in 1997, was named the Lamont Poet at the Phillips Exeter Academy.
Kelly was a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and served as senior poetry editor of Ninth Letter. She also taught, previously at the University of California, Irvine, Purdue University, and Warren Wilson College.
Awards 2008: Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets 2006: Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2005: Pulitzer Prize (poetry), Finalist (for The Orchard) 2005: National Book Critics' Circle (poetry), Finalist 2005: Los Angeles Times Book Award (poetry), Finalist 2005: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 2000: James Merrill House Fellowship 1999: American Academy of Arts and Letters Witter Bynner Poetry Prize 1996: Whiting Award 1995: Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry, Finalist 1994: Lamont Poetry Prize (for Song) 1986: Yale Younger Poets Award, selected by James Merrill 1986: Discovery/The Nation Poetry Prize
Books
Chapbooks
Anthologies
References
External links Academy of American Poets Biography Literary Agent site BOA Editions Biography Profile at The Whiting Foundation The Orchard reviewed in Double Room