Terri Witek
Terri Witek (born Therese Ann Damm in Sandusky, Ohio in 1952[1]) is an American poet and college professor. Witek has been described as "a poet who really does go down deep into the emotional muck that rarely sees the light of day. She provokes memory, that most relentless of self-inquisitors, and in doing so she becomes, quite simply, indispensable."[2]
Her collections of poetry include The Shipwreck Dress (2008), a Florida Book Award winner; Carnal World (2006); Fools and Crows (2003); and Courting Couples (2000), a Center for Book Arts Prize winner[3]. Her poetry has appeared in The New Republic, Slate, Poetry, The Threepenny Review, Shenandoah, and elsewhere[4], and she has with collaborated with Brazilian new media artist Cyriaco Lopes.[5] She is also the author of Robert Lowell and Life Studies: Revising the Self.
Witek holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University and is the director of the Sullivan Creative Writing Program at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where she holds the Art & Melissa Sullivan Chair in Creative Writing.[4] In 2000, she received the McInery Award for Teaching, and in 2008, she received the John Hague Teaching Award for outstanding teaching in the liberal arts and sciences.[6]
She is married to Joseph Witek, who is also a professor of English at Stetson University.