Gibbons Ruark

Gibbons Ruark was born in North Carolina in 1941, grew up in various Methodist parsonages in the eastern part of the state, was educated in its public schools and holds degrees from the Universities of North Carolina and Massachusetts.

His poems have been published widely for fifty years in a variety of magazines and anthologies and individual collections. He is the recipient of residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, three NEA Poetry Fellowships, a Pushcart Prize and the Saxifrage Prize for Keeping Company. His most recent books are The Road to Ballyvaughan, Staying Blue and Passing Through Customs: New and Selected Poems. New work can be seen in recent issues of The New Republic, The New Criterion, Shenandoah and The New Yorker. Ruark has given public readings in at least half of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Delaware, he lives with his wife Kay in Raleigh, North Carolina.