| Date Span: | 1957 - |
| Creator: | Turco, Lewis (1934-) |
| Extent: | 32.50 linear feet. |
| Collection Number: | MSC0537 |
| Repository: | University of Iowa Special Collections |
| Summary: | Papers of the twentieth century poet and teacher. Includes manuscripts of poems, books, essays, book reviews, plays, short stories, and correspondence and bibliographies. |
Alternate Extent Statement: Photographs: Boxes 2, 15, 18; Audiocassettes: Series 4, Boxes 1-6.
Access: This collection is open for research.
Use: Copyright restrictions may apply; please consult Special Collections staff for further information.
Acquisition: This collection was donated to the University of Iowa by Mr. Turco in 2001, with addendae arriving periodically after that.
Preferred Citation: Lewis Turco Papers, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.
| Repository: | University of Iowa Special Collections |
| Address: | Special Collections Department University of Iowa Libraries Iowa City, IA 52242 |
| Phone: | 319-335-5921 |
| Curator: | Greg Prickman |
| Email: | lib-spec@uiowa.edu |
| Website: | http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc |
Lewis Turco was born in Buffalo, New York on May 2, 1934. He received his BA from the University of Connecticut in 1959 and his MA from the University of Iowa in 1962. He taught at Fenn College (later Cleveland State University) where he founded the Cleveland Poetry Center, of which he was the director until 1964. He then served as Assistant Professor at Hillsdale College in 1964-65. From 1965 until 1996, he taught at SUNY-Oswego, where he was also Poet-in-Residence from 1995 until his retirement in 1996. At SUNY-Oswego he founded and directed the Program in the Writing Arts.
Turco began his publishing career in 1960, with the publication of First Poems. Sometimes using the pseudonym Wesli Court (an anagram of Lewis Turco), he has continued to publish poetry, books about poetry, such as the New Book of Forms and Visions and Revisions of American Poetry, and other works related to the writing arts. He has collaborated with other artists on such projects as While the Spider Slept, a ballet based upon his poem November 22, 1963, performed by the Swedish Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; The Fog, a chamber opera with Dutch composer Walter Hekster; and Bordello: PoemPrints with printmaker George O'Connell.
He has received many awards, among them the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Alumni Association of the University of Connecticut, the Bordighera Poetry Prize, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Ashland University, and the John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry. He is now retired from University teaching and from operating an antiquarian bookshop in Maine.
Mr. Turco can be reached at e-mail jturco@adelphia.net
His blog is www.lewisturco.net
See: Klebba, Caryn E. Ed. Directory of American Scholars. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. Vol. II, p. 511.
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