Richard Flynn
Professor Emeritus
Department of English
Office: Newton 2218B
(912) 478-0150
Education:
Ph.D. 1987, American Literature, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
M. Phil. 1984, American Literature, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
M. A. 1980, Literature (Creative Writing Emphasis in Poetry), The American University, Washington, D.C.
B.A. 1977, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Selected Publications:
Books
The Age of Reason. Terre Haute, IN: Hawkhead Press, 1993 (poetry).
Randall Jarrell and the Lost World of Childhood. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1990 (criticism).
Edited Work
Editor, Children's Literature Association Quarterly Volume 29.3-34.4 (Fall 2004-Winter 2009)
with Anita Tarr. Children's Literature Association Quarterly 27.1 (Spring 2002). Special Issue on Children's Poetry..
Articles and Book Chapters
"V is for Verse." B is for Baldwin: An Alphabet Tour of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature. Edited by Suzan Alteri, with editorial collective Kenneth Kidd, Poushali Bhadury, and Laurie Taylor. Library Press@UF, 2022. 108-111.
"Elizabeth Bishop's Sanity: Childhood Trauma, Psychoanalysis, and Sentimentality." Elizabeth Bishop and the Literary Archive. Edited by Bethany Hicok. Lever Press, 2020.
"A Last Word: The 2018 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry". (Co-authored with Lissa Paul and Joseph Thomas.) The Lion and the Unicorn 42.3 (September 2018): 359-374.
"Why Genre Matters: A Case for the Importance of Aesthetics in the Verse Memoirs of Marilyn Nelson and Jacqueline Woodson". The Lion and the Unicorn 42.2 (April 2018): 109-128.
"Panning for Gold: The 2017 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry". (Co-authored with Lissa Paul and Joseph Thomas.) The Lion and The Unicorn 41.3 (September 2017): 386-403.
"The Quick and the Dead: The 2016 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry". (Co-authored with Lissa Paul and Kate Pendlebury.) The Lion and the Unicorn 40.3 (September 2016): 329-46.
"What Are We Talking about When We Talk about Agency?" Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 8.1 (2016): 254-65.
"Introduction: Disputing the Role of Agency in Children’s Literature and Culture." Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 8.1 (2016): 248-53.
“Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell, and the Lost World of Real Feeling.” Cambridge History of American Poetry. Ed. Stephen Burt and Alfred Bendixen. New York and Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 775-794.
“Like a Cactus Tree”: Coming of Age with Joni Mitchell’s Music.” Gathered Light: The Poetry of Joni Mitchell's Songs. Ed. Lisa and John Sornberger. Toronto: Sumach Press, 2013. 19-22.
"My Folk Revival: Childhood, Politics, and Popular Music." Time of Beauty, Time of Fear: the Romantic Legacy in the Literature of Childhood. Edited by James Holt McGavran. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2012. 151-168.
"Words in Air: Bishop, Lowell, and the Aesthetics of Autobiographical Poetry" Elizabeth Bishop in the Twenty-First Century: Reading the New Editions. Edited by Angus Cleghorn, Bethany Hicok, and Thomas Travisano. Charlottesville: U Virginia P, 2012. 204-220.
"Ambivalent, Double, Divided: Reading and Rereading Perry Nodelman" (Review Essay). Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 3.1 (Summer 2011): 137-151.
"Culture." Keywords for Children's Literature. Edited by Philip Nel and Lissa Paul. New York: NYU Press, 2011: 62-66.
"Randall Jarrell's The Bat-Poet : Poets, Children and Readers in an Age of Prose." Chapter 2 of The Oxford Handbook of Children's Literature. Edited by Julia Mickenberg and Lynne Vallone. New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011.53-70.
"Toward a Digital Poetics for Children." Children's Literature Association Quaterly 35.4 (Winter 2010): 418-426.
"The Fear of Poetry." Chapter 5 of The Cambridge Companion to Children's Literature , edited by M. O. Grenby and Andrea Immel. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 2009: 76-90.
"'from brain all the way to heart': The 2008 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry." (Co-authored with Angela Sorby and Joseph Thomas.) The Lion and the Unicorn 32.3 (September 2008): 344-56.
"Messages in a Bottle: The 2007 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry."(Co-authored with Angela Sorby and Joseph Thomas.) The Lion and the Unicorn 31.3 (September 2007): 264-81.
"'It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)': The 2006 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry." (Co-authored with Joseph Thomas and JonArno Lawson.) The Lion and the Unicorn 30.3 (September 2006): 383-97.
"Postgraduate Children's Literature in the United States." Chapter 8 of Teaching Children's Fiction. Edited by Charles Butler. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 181-188.
"It Could Be Verse: The 2005 Lion and the Unicorn Ward for Excellence in North American Poetry" . (Co-authored with Kelly Hager and Joseph Thomas.) The Lion and the Unicorn 29.3 (September 2005): 427-441.
"Consolation Prize." SIGNAL Approaches to Children's Books 100 (September 2003): 66-83.
"Jarrell's Wicked Fairy: Cultural Criticism, Childhood, and the 1950s." Jarrell, Bishop, Lowell, & Co.: Middle-Generation Poets in Context. Edited by Suzanne Ferguson. (U Tennessee P, 2003): 93-112.
"'Affirmative Acts': Language, Childhood, and Power in June Jordan's Cross-Writing." Children's Literature 30: 159-185 . Reprinted in Still Seeking an Attitude: Critical Reflections on the Work of June Jordan , edited by Valerie Kinloch and Margret Grebowicz. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004)
"'The Kindergarten of New Consciousness': Gwendolyn Brooks and the Social Construction of Childhood." African American Review 34.3 (Fall 2000): 483-499. Click here for text. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.) Reprinted in Gwendolyn Brooks (Critical Insights) ed. Mildred R. Mickle. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2009.
"'Infant Sight': Romanticism, Childhood, and Postmodern Poetry." In Literature and the Child: Romantic Continuations, Postmodern Contestations. Edited by James Holt McGavran. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1999: 105-129. Click here for catalogue copy or order from Amazon.com
"The Intersection of Children's Literature and Childhood Studies." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 22.3 (Fall 1997): 143-145.
"Home-made! But aren't we all? Crusoe in the Nursery." Selected Papers from Elizabeth Bishop: New Readings, a Symposium at Vassar College, 22-25 September 1994. http://web.archive.org/web/20040815131525/http://projects.vassar.edu/bishop/Flynn.html
"Imitation Oz: The Sequel as Commodity." The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children's Literature 20.1 (1996): 121-131. Click for Text (available to Project Muse subscribers only). Reprinted in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism 132: 74-79 (Detroit: Gale, 2003).
"`The Buried Life and the Body of Waking': Muriel Rukeyser and the Politics of Literary History." Chapter 12 of Gendered Modernisms: American Women Poets and Their Readers. Edited by Margaret Dickie and Thomas Travisano. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996: 264-279.
"Children's Literature." Twentieth-Century Britain: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Fred M. Leventhal. New York: Garland, 1995: 143-145.
"Can Children's Poetry Matter?" The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children's Literature 17.1 (1993): 37-44.
"Randall Jarrell's Mermaid: The Animal Family and `Semifeminine' Poetics." Children's Literature in Education 23 (1992): 167-173.
"Mark Jarman," Dictionary of Literary Biography: American Poets Since World War II, Third Selection. Edited by R.S. Gwynn. Volume 120 (1992): 156-161. Click here for text
"William Logan," Dictionary of Literary Biography. American Poets Since World War II, Third Selection. Edited by R.S. Gwynn. Volume 120 (1992): 195-199. Click here for text
"Kipling and Scouting, or `Akela, We'll Do Our Best.'" Children's Literature Association Quarterly 16.2 (Summer 1991): 55-58.
"James Applewhite," Dictionary of Literary Biography: American Poets Since World War II, Second Series. Edited by R.S. Gwynn. Volume 105 (1991): 11-18. Click here for text
"Happy Families are All Invented: Randall Jarrell's Fiction for Children." Children's Literature 16: 109-125 (Yale UP, 1988).
Short Reference Entries
"Randall Jarrell" and "Gertrude Stein." The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales . Edited by Jack Zipes. New York: Oxford UP, 2000.
"Randall Jarrell," "Kate Douglas Wiggin," and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm." Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English . Edited by Victor Watson. Cambrdige: Cambridge UP, 2001.
Poems published in a variety of magazines, including lower limit speech, Washington Review, Laurel Review, Gargoyle, The Reaper, and Aerial.
Book Reviews and Essays published in a variety of magazines including The Elizabeth Bishop Bulletin, The Lion and the Unicorn, Washington Review, Children's Literature Association Quarterly, and New Mexico Humanities Review.
Conference Papers given at MLA, SAMLA, American Literature Association, Children's Literature Association and other conferences.