Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Stephen Kuusisto Receives 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry

Friday, April 9, 2021, By Ellen de Graffenreid
Share
Burton Blatt InstituteSchool of Education

The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation has announced that Stephen Kuusisto, University Professor in the School of Education and director of interdisciplinary programs and outreach at the Burton Blatt Institute in the College of Law, has been awarded a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry.

Kuusisto’s project, “Eavesdropping: The Poetry of Blind Listening,” builds on his previous work, including the memoirs “Planet of the Blind” (a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”) and “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening.” His poetry collections include “Only Bread, Only Light” and “Letters to Borges.” His newest memoir, “Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey,” was published in 2018. His latest poetry collection is called “Old Horse, What is to Be Done?”

Stephen Kuusisto

Stephen Kuusisto

His work explores the reality that blind people are not casual listeners. Blind since birth, he recounts with a poet’s sense of detail the surprise that comes when we are actively listening to our surroundings. His writings describe and celebrate the aural landscape that he navigates and the soundscapes that he experiences in nature, music, travel and daily life.

A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a Fulbright Scholar, he has taught at the University of Iowa, Hobart & William Smith Colleges and The Ohio State University. Kuusisto has served as an advisor to the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C., and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show; Dateline; All Things Considered; Morning Edition; Talk of the Nation; A&E; and Animal Planet. His essays have appeared in The New York Times; The Washington Post; Harper’s; Reader’s Digest; and his daily blog “Planet of the Blind” is read globally by people interested in disability and contemporary culture.

In 2021, the Guggenheim Foundation awarded fellowships to a diverse group of 184 artists, writers, scholars and scientists. These exceptional candidates were chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from almost 3,000 applicants.

Created in 1925 by Senator Simon and Olga Guggenheim in memory of their son John Simon Guggenheim, the foundation has offered fellowships to exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions.

  • Author

Ellen de Graffenreid

  • Recent
  • Providing a Voice for the Systemically Suppressed With Erykah Pasha ’24 on the ‘’Cuse Conversations’ Podcast
    Monday, June 5, 2023, By John Boccacino
  • Men’s Soccer Team Gives Back to Syracuse Community for Season of Support
    Friday, June 2, 2023, By Kathleen Haley
  • June 30 Deadline Set for Fiscal 2023 Year End Business
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By News Staff
  • DPS Accepting Sign-Ups for R.A.D. Summer Session
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By Alex Haessig
  • Syracuse Stage Adds 2 Musicals to 50th Anniversary Season
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By Joanna Penalva

More In Arts & Culture

From Print to the Big Screen, Works by Creative Writing Faculty and Alumni Receive International Acclaim

The renowned creative writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English has a reputation for nurturing some of the top writers from diverse backgrounds, voices and interests. Faculty include widely recognized, award-winning writers, and many M.F.A….

Syracuse Stage Closing Season With Performance of the Ultimate Whodunnit, ‘CLUE’

Syracuse Stage Artistic Director Robert Hupp and Managing Director Jill Anderson announced they will close the 2022/2023 season with a production that celebrates the pure joy and simple fun of live theatre, the fan favorite and ultimate whodunnit, “CLUE.” The…

Syracuse University Art Museum Chosen for Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Prints Initiative Grant

The Syracuse University Art Museum is one of 10 university art museums nationwide chosen for inclusion in the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s 2023 Frankenthaler Prints Initiative. The award includes a gift of selected original prints by the renowned artist and $25,000…

Carrie Mae Weems H’17 Honored at 12th Annual Brooklyn Artists Ball

Internationally renowned artist Carrie Mae Weems H’17, Syracuse University’s first-ever artist in residence, was the guest of honor at the 12th Annual Brooklyn Artists Ball, presented by Dior, held April 25, at the Brooklyn Museum. Weems was honored for “her innumerable contributions…

‘My Poetry Is a Record of What Happened’ Says Palestinian MFA Student Mosab Abu Toha G’23

The title poem in the debut collection of Mosab Abu Toha G’23 begins with a plea that the surgeon repairing his punctured eardrum save the things he cherishes: his mother’s voice, songs in Arabic, poems in English, chirping birds. “When…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.