• Click here

Ashton, Sally, (alum 2001)

• Click here for biography and selected poems

Bland, Henry Meade (faculty 1899 - 1931)

• Click here for biography and selected poems
• California Poet Laureate from 1929 - 1931 (second person to hold this distinction)
• 4/21/1863 - 4/29/1931

Burns, Bill (alum 1966)

• Click here for biography and selected poems

Caldwell, Julinda (alum )

• Click here for biography and links to poems

Cervantes, Lorna Dee (alum 1984)

• Information from the Academy of American Poets
• Information from the University of Minnesota Voices from the Gaps website
• Poem - "Freeway 280" (1981)
• Information on her book - Drive published by Wings Press (2006)
• Her blog

Clark, Naomi (faculty)

• Lecturer
• SJSU alum; PhD from UC Santa Cruz
• Per Professor Alan Soldofsky - she helped make San Jose a center for poetry through the many workshops she led and her work at SJSU and the San Jose Poetry Center
• Quarterly Book of Literature for 1997 - information on Dr. Clark and her second book of poems - When I Kept Silence (1988) + the poem "Needle's Eye."

Collins, Gloria (faculty)

• Information from the SJSU Writing Center

Daley, Edith (friend of campus and Markham, circa 1917 - 1933)

• State College Times of November 23, 1933 (pg 4) includes a poem she wrote for Edwin Markham. The poem was included in her collection of poems - The Angel in the Sun. That book was published by The Pacific Short Story Club in 1917, which was produced through the Normal School.

de Araujo, Virginia P. (faculty 1975 - ??)

• Professor of English
• Helped start the MFA program.
• BS from SJSU (1970) and PhD from Stanford (1976)
• Often taught composition (ENG 1A and 1B). Per Gloria Collins, she thought that to write a good poem, one had to know grammar.

Edgerton, Tod (lecturer)

• Click here.

Elliott, Ellen Coit (guest lecturer 1932)

• July 27, 1932 - read her poems and discussed modern poetry at a tea held in her honor in the Home Making Building at the College.
• Wife of Dr. Orrin Leslie Elliott, former Registrar at Stanford
• Some of her works were published in the Poetry Society of London's "A Poets Fellowship"

Escamilla, Rachelle (alum)

• Click here.
• Founder of SJSU Poets and Writers Coalition

Evans, Kate (faculty)

• Cick here

Friends - poets who participated in poetry events of SJSU

• Click here 

Goss, Erica (alum, MFA 2007)

• Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, 2013-2016
• Books include Night Court, Wild Place, and Vibrant Words: Ideas and Inspirations for Poets
• Website with more information, regular posts and newsletters, and poems

Greathead, S. Estelle (registrar 1905 - 1923)

• Click here for biography and selected poems

Gularte, Lara (MFA alum 2005)

• Click here for biography and link to poems

Hass, Robert  (faculty)

• Taught at SJSU prior to being named U.S. Poet Laureate
• U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995 - 1997
• Currently teaches at UC Berkeley
• Biography from the Academy of American Poet + a few poems
• Biography and a few poems from Modern American Poetry site at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Holloway, Roberta C. (faculty September 1, 1946 to January 30, 1970)

• Information on poetry activities she endowed at UC Berkeley
• Earned these degrees from UC Berkeley: AB in 1923, MA in 1927, PhD in 1945
• Dr. Holloway took a sabbatical in spring 1960.  She spent the leave in London doing research on John Donne's Third Satyre and the prose fiction of George Grissing. While in London, she used the British Museum and the library at London University.
• Entry from San Jose State College Bulletin for 1947-1948 lists Dr. Holloway as an Assistant Professor of English. "A.B., 1923, M.A., 1926, Ph.D. 1945, University of California. Teaching fellow in English, University of California, 1923-25, '27, '28. Instructor in English, Visalia High School and Junior College, 1929-33 and 1934-35. Instructor in Subject A, University of California, 1935-46 and Summer Sessions 1944, '45, '46. At San Jose since 1946."
• Some of her poetry was published in Poetry magazine:
  • "Sorrow" - March 1924
  • "Maze at Midnight" and "Wake for Another Day" - Feb. 1933
  • "Remembering Atlas," "The Wide Day," "The Lovely Children" and "Invitation to Many Voices" - July 1937
• 9/4/02 - 1/30/78

Karim, Persis (faculty)

• Information from the College of Humanities & The Arts 

Kizer, Carolyn (Lurie Fellow, Spring 2001)

• 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• Information from the College of Humanities & The Arts 
• Academy of American Poets

Lewandowski, Lou (faculty 1969 - 2000)

• Click here for biography and selected poems

Lycurgus, Cate (faculty, assessment facilitator 2014 to present)

• Click here for biography and selected poems

Maio, Samuel (faculty 1990 - present)

• BA 1977 University of Utah; MA 1979 University of Utah; PhD 1986 University of Southern California
• Information from the College of Humanities & The Arts 

Markham, Edwin (alum 1872)

• Click here for biography and selected poems
• 4/23/1852 - 3/8/1940

McPherson, Sandra (alum 1965)

• Biographical information from the Academy of American Poets
• Biographical information and links to selected poems from poetryfoundation.org
• Website at UC Davis where she is a Professor of English (retired)
• Wikipedia entry

Merrin, Jeredith (alum 1978)

• Professor Emerita, The Ohio State University
• MFA in English SJSU 1978
• PhD in English UC Berkeley 1987
• Numerous works including "Family Reunion" in Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, 4/5/07; poems published in ABZ, Barrow Street, Occident, Paris Review, Ploughshares, San Jose Studies, The Southern Review, Threepenny Review, Yale Review, Zoomorphic, Cup (2014), and Shift (1996).
• Links to some poems:
  • Family Reunion
  • Two Poems (in the Paris Review)
• Information from Poets.org.

Moody, Neli (faculty)

• Information
• Select poems:
  • Full Worm Moon
  • Cincinnati

Money, Peter (alum)

• Information

Peterson, Nils T. (faculty 1963 to 1999)

• Professor Emeritus of English
• BA 1954 Central College of Kentucky; MA 1958 Rutgers University
• Click here for biographical information from the Guild for Psychological Studies

• Co-founder of Poetry Center San Jose

• Appointed first Santa Clara County Poet Laureate for 4/1/09 - 3/31/2011

  • Santa Clara County announcement of the 2 year appointment that begins April 1, 2009

  • Mercury News story of 3/24/09

• Born 11/23/33

Phelan, James D. (friend of SJSU; endowed the Phelan Award for student creative writings)

• Click here for biography and selected poems

Rich, Adrienne (faculty 1985-1986)

• Click here for biography and links to poems

Royce, Ruth (alum, 1877; librarian 1881 - 1918)

• Click here for biography and links to poems

Sanderson, Virginia Somes (faculty 1922 - ??)

• Click here for biography and selected poems

Soldofsky, Alan (faculty 1988 - present)

• BA 1971 University of Iowa; MFA 1972 University of Iowa
• Information from the College of Humanities & The Arts 

Stafford, William Edgar (faculty 1956-1957)

• 1914-1993
• 1954 - PhD University of Iowa
• After teaching 1 year at SJSU, returned to Lewis & Clark College in Oregon where he taught for almost 30 years
• Archive of his poems
• Poetry Foundation information
• Poets.org information

Taylor, Mary Lou (alum 1970)

• Bio from National League of American Pen Women, Inc.
• Q&A from 2016 SJSU Washington Square magazine
• Poem - On First Looking at Antelope Valley
• Select poems
• 1930 - 2023

Whiting (nee Carpio), Patricia (student and student assistant mid-1960s

• Click here for biography and links to poems

Wyatt, Faricita Hall (alum 1935)

• Information from SJSU Special Collections and here
• Information from the Oakland Public Library

Young, Al  (Lurie Fellow, Spring 2002; Guest lecturer April 5, 2007)

• "Ways and Ways to San Jose" - Mr. Young's poem for SJSU's 150th Anniversary and its Legacy of Poetry
• California Poet Laureate - 2005-2008
• Al Young's website
• Academy of American Poets
• New York Times Obituary + Berkleyside Obituary (Mr. Young passed away on April 17, 2021)

Comments? 
Please contact annette.nellen@sjsu.edu