Scott Cairns

Scott Cairns, PhD (né Scott Clifford Cairns; born 1954 Tacoma, Washington) is an American poet, memoirist, librettist, and essayist.

Formal education

Cairns earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Washington University (1977), a Master of Arts degree from Hollins University (1979), a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bowling Green State University (1981), and a PhD from the University of Utah (1990).^[1]

Academic career

Cairns has served on the faculties of Kansas State University, Westminster College, University of North Texas, Old Dominion University.^[2] He currently is the Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair in English at the University of Missouri.^[3] While at North Texas, Cairns had served as editor of the American Literary Review. He now also directs Writing Workshops in Greece, an annual, 4-week workshop during the month of June, located on the island of Thasos. Since 2015, he has also served on the poetry faculty of the Seattle Pacific University low-residency MFA program in creative writing.

Works

Cairns is the author of eight collections of poetry, one collection of translations of Christian mystics, one spiritual memoir, a book-length essay on suffering, and co-edited The Sacred Place with Scott Olsen, an anthology of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. It won the inaugural National Outdoor Book Award (Outdoor Literature category) in 1997. He wrote the libretto for "The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp," an oratorio composed by JAC Redford, and the libretto for "A Melancholy Beauty," an oratorio composed by Georgi Andreev. Cairns's poems have appeared in journals including The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The New Republic, Image, and Poetry, and have been anthologized in Upholding Mystery (Oxford University Press, 1996), Best Spiritual Writing (Harper Collins, 1998 and 2000), and Best American Spiritual Writing (Houghton Mifflin, 2004, 2005, and 2006).

Family

He is married to Marcia Lane Vanderlip and they have two children, Benjamin V. Cairns and Elizabeth V. Cairns-Callen. He has a brother, Steve Cairns, who currently resides in Hong Kong, teaching at an International School.

Awards

• 2006 Guggenheim Fellow
• 2014 The Denise Levertov Award

Works

• Another Road Home, Poetry (July/August 2009)
• Eremite, Poetry (January 2009)
• Idiot Psalms, Poetry (January 2009)

External links

• Partaking in the Holy Mysteries: An Interview with Scott Cairns, by Andrew W.E. Carlson & Scott Cairns, The Other Journal, The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology

Part I, June 10, 2009

Part II, June 11, 2009

• Scott Cairns Interview, Mars Hill Review, Fall 1996 · Issue 6: pgs 140-143.
• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lookingcloser/the-event-of-poetry-a-conversation-with-poet-scott-cairns-about-reading-writing-and-responsibility/

References

Bibliography

• "Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems" (Paraclete Press, 2015) ISBN 978-1-61261-657-5
• Idiot Psalms: New Poems (Paraclete Press, 2014) ISBN 978-1-61261-515-8
• Endless Life: Poems of the Mystics (Translations/Adaptations: Paraclete Press, 2014) ISBN 978-1-61261-520-2
• The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain (Nonfiction: Paraclete Press, 2009) ISBN 978-1-55725-563-1
• Love's Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life (Translations/Adaptations: Paraclete Press, 2007) ISBN 978-1557255259
• Short Trip to the Edge: Where Earth Meets Heaven—A Pilgrimage, Spiritual Memoir: (HarperSanFrancisco]], 2007) ISBN 978-0-06-084322-9
• Compass of Affection: Poems New and Selected, Poems: Paraclete Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-55725-503-7
• Philokalia (Poems: Zoo Press, 2002)
• Recovered Body Poems: George Braziller Inc., 1998 ISBN 9780-8076-1437-2
• The Sacred Place [co-edited with Scott Olsen] (Anthology: University of Utah Press, 1996)
• Figures for the Ghost Poems: University of Georgia Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-8203-1601-7
• Disciplinary Treatises (Poetry Chapbook: Trilobite Press, 1993)
• Sermons for the Wary (Poetry Chapbook: Franciscan University Press, 1993)
• The Translation of Babel (Poems: University of Georgia Press, 1990)
• The Theology of Doubt (Poems: Cleveland State University Press, 1985)
• Finding the Broken Man (Poetry Chapbook: Window Press, 1982)

General references (biographical)

Inline citations