Robert P. Arthur

Robert P. Arthur

Hailing from the town of Melfa on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Robert P. Arthur has published, novels, short stories, plays, and poetry, as well as over 1000 articles and reviews on the arts as a feature writer and critic. He’s won awards or grants in all five disciplines.

A Writer in low Residence at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania for part of the year, he’s a former director of the Edge Theatre in Belle Haven on the Eastern Shore, as well as a former Executive Director of the Poetry Society of Virginia. He is a co-owner of San Francisco Bay Press (with Jeff Hewitt) and was the founder of The BlackWater Review and Poetry in Performance (an acting group). In addition, he's the Poetry Selection Editor of Northampton House Press; and a former theatre director for Tidewater Community College and the 42nd Street Theatre in Norfolk (among other theatres), as well as a performer. Considered by many the finest poet of the Chesapeake Bay, the Melfa native wrote Hymn to the Chesapeake, which was performed as a musical play or poem/play and was directed and scored by Judi Tracey and performed throughout Virginia, Maryland, Washington, Pennsylvania, New York, and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Hymn won Port Folio's Most Innovative Play Award and his Phaedra won Best Play and four other awards. His Chesapeake Celebration was produced by the Actor's Premiere Theatre of New York. Two of his novels took first place at the Virginia Writer's Conference in consecutive years, and his book, Vija's War, was nominated for the Library of Virginia Award.

Three universities have honored his work with special awards and he has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Port Folio Weekly. Arthur continues to be a touring poet. His work has received fourteen grants. Recent books include Black Gum Against Thunder, Robert Arthur's Eastern Shore, a second edition of Hymn to the Chesapeake, and Passover.

Arthur was a finalist for Poet Laureate of Virginia in 2008 and 2010.