Alan W. Powers (born 1944) is an American academic and writer who has published on topics about Shakespeare, Renaissance law and folklore, and the songs of birds. In 2009 he was named Professor Emeritus of English at Bristol Community College, where he taught Shakespeare's works, western world literature, and poetry writing classes.

Early life and education The son of Roger Milton Powers and Ida Maxine Richardson, Alan Powers was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1944.

Powers attended Classical High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, and East Longmeadow High School He earned his bachelor's degree at Amherst College and married Susan Elizabeth Mohl in 1966. They had two daughters and four grandchildren.

Powers' 1976 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Minnesota, This critical age: deliberate departures from literary conventions in seventeenth century English poetry,Powers, A. W. (1976). This critical age: deliberate departures from literary conventions in seventeenth century English poetry (Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota). was advised by Leonard Unger.

Career Interviewer J. North Conway described Alan Powers as "...the closest I have come to meeting a true Renaissance man; a person skilled and knowledgeable in many fields. He is a poet, an author, a playwright, composer, and actor..." Powers said he studied with Archibald McLeish, "who recommended me to a year-long National Endowment for the Humanities program at Brown University…" McLeish (who had won three Pulitzer Prizes, two in Poetry and one in Drama) wrote of Powers's work, "Your effort is better than academic. It leaves me feeling learned and grateful."

Following his doctorate, Powers was on the faculty of Berkshire Community College and then on the faculty of Bristol Community College. Powers also completed postdoctoral appointments at "Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Cornell, the Folger Library, Breadloaf, Villa Vergilliana (Cuma, Italy) and the American Academy, Rome." One such fellowship was a $1,000 award in 1996 from the Northeast Modern Language Association.

Powers served as chairman of the Bristol Community College English Department of from 1988 to 1992.

At Bristol Community College, Powers interviewed poet Elizabeth Bishop three times, and was described by Peggi Medeiros: "Alan is the author of Bird Talk and The World of Giordano Bruno. He also reviews concerts for the The Standard-Times. It turned out Alan was mentored by Rhoda Wheeler when he began teaching at BCC. He had been at two of (Louise) Bishop's readings, and not only that, he had interviewed her. His posting tied my favorite Bishop poem to Westport." Powers had written about Bishop's poetry: Since 2011, Powers has contributed more than forty articles, letters, and obituaries to a variety of publications, including MSN UK, The Guardian, Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News UK, AOL UK, The Art Newspaper, The Architectural Review, Spiked, The Architects' Journal, The Herald News, Apollo The Internacional Art Magazine, Country Life, The Taunton Daily Gazette, Literary Review, Eye Magazine, The RIBA Journal, Crafts, Inkl, and Inner Power.

Selected publications

Books

Selected articles

Letters to the editor

Films

Powers appeared in the 1986 Oscar nominated documentary-short subject that he helped write, Keats and His Nightingale. Powers was also in the 2005 Public Broadcasting Independent Lens production, A Loaded Gun about Emily Dickinson, and Famous in the Neighborhood, about Cleveland poet Danny Thompson.

Awards, honors

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) program at Brown University. Professor Emeritus, Bristol Community College (2009)

References

External links