Jay Rogoff

Jay Rogoff is the author of seven books of poetry. His most recent collection, LOVING IN TRUTH: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (LSU Press, 2020) draws on forty years of his published work, over one hundred previously published poems, together with forty-four that have not previously appeared in book form. His latest book, BECOMING POETRY: POETS AND THEIR METHODS (LSU Press, 2023), won the Lewis P. Simpson Award for an outstanding book of American literary criticism. It evaluates the work of some two dozen poets, Rogoff's forebears and contemporaries, to determine what in their work gives it lasting value and persuades us to identify the poet with the poetry.

Of his previous books of poetry, ENAMEL EYES, A FANTASIA ON PARIS, 1870 (LSU Press, 2016), a lyrical sequence with the breadth and depth of a historical novel, considers the events of "the terrible year" through multiple perspectives. The Franco-Prussian War, the siege of Paris, and the Commune come alive through the eyes and voices of a variety of historical figures who witnessed and participated in the events, including artists such as Degas, Manet, Bonheur, and Tissot, and the creators and fictional characters of the ballet COPPELIA, which premiered in May of that year.

VENERA, a consideration of the varieties of love, sacred and profane, was published by LSU Press in 2014. THE ART OF GRAVITY, which explores the meaning of dance for our lives while also considering gravity as a force that focuses our mortality, appeared from LSU Press in 2011.

THE LONG FAULT (LSU Press, 2008) examines the impact of history and art upon the individual imagination; HOW WE CAME TO STAND ON THAT SHORE (River City, 2003) presents poems about immigrant experience and family history, as well as a dairy-farming epithalamion; and THE CUTOFF (Word Works, 1995), winner of the Washington Prize for Poetry, follows a minor-league ballplayer and his family through a crucial season. He has also published TWENTY DANSES MACABRE (Spring Garden, 2010), a letterpress chapbook that rings darkly comic changes on the ancient Dance of Death motif.

Born in Queens, New York, Rogoff was educated at the Bronx High School of Science (where studying with Hank Levy made him serious about writing poetry), the University of Pennsylvania, and Syracuse University. He has taught at Syracuse, LeMoyne College, and at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Now retired from teaching, he continues as Research Associate in English at Skidmore.

His poems and critical prose appear in many journals, including Agni, Field, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, The Hopkins Review, Literary Imagination, Notre Dame Review, Ploughshares, Poetry London, and The Southern Review. He served as dance critic for The Hopkins Review 2009-2021, contributed regularly to Ballet Review until it folded in 2020, and covers the summer New York City Ballet season in Saratoga Springs for NPR station WAMC. Other prizes include the 2009 Robert Watson Poetry Award for TWENTY DANSES MACABRE and a 2010 Pushcart Prize. He lives in Saratoga Springs, New York.