Michael Thurston

Michael Thurston is the Helen Means Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College. Since 2000, he has taught courses on 20th-century poetry in English, modernism, American literature, and American studies. His research focuses on modern and contemporary poetry, with notable publications including books on British/Irish poetry, American political poetry, and a Norton Critical Edition of The Sun Also Rises.

• Primary Research Areas: Modern/Contemporary Poetry, American Literature
• Current Project: NEH-funded biography of literary critic F.O. Matthiessen
• Awards: 2010 Sherrerd Prize for Distinguished Teaching

Selected Publications:

• Reading Postwar British and Irish Poetry (2014, with Nigel Alderman)
• The Underworld in Twentieth-Century Poetry (2009)
• Making Something Happen: American Political Poetry between the World Wars (2001)
• Editor, Norton Critical Edition of The Sun Also Rises (2022)