معرفی
Toby Altman is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University’s Residential College of Arts and Humanities (RCAH) and Director of the RCAH Center for Poetry. He holds an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a PhD in English from Northwestern University, where his dissertation The Shock of the Old: Periodization, Poetics, and Diachronic Exchange between the Renaissance and the Avant-Garde won the Jean H. Hagstrum Prize. His interdisciplinary work bridges poetry, literary criticism, and architecture, focusing on connections between Renaissance and avant-garde poetries and the cultural politics of midwestern architecture. Altman has received fellowships from the Graham Foundation, MacDowell, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Altman’s research and creative work explore themes of temporal disjunction, spatial poetics, and institutional critique. His monograph-in-progress, The Diachronic Renaissance, examines subterranean links between historical and modernist poetics. He also writes a poetic trilogy on midwestern architecture, engaging figures like Bertrand Goldberg and Louis Sullivan. His poetry collections include Jewel Box (2025), Discipline Park (2023), and Arcadia, Indiana (2017), with works published in journals like Contemporary Literature, Gulf Coast, and jacket2.
Altman’s teaching and mentorship emphasize creative and critical intersections. He has organized literary events such as the RCAH Poetry Center’s reading series and contributed to initiatives like the Midwestern Miscellany. His awards reflect recognition for both scholarly and creative contributions, including the Hagstrum Prize and NEA Fellowships. Current projects include collaborations on architecture’s role in capitalist systems and a series on Bertrand Goldberg’s designs.
- Education: PhD in English (Northwestern University), MFA in Poetry (Iowa Writers’ Workshop)
- Awards: Graham Foundation Fellowship, MacDowell Residency, NEA Poetry Fellowship
- Publications: Over 20 peer-reviewed articles and 10 poetry collections/chapbooks
