Franz Paul Wright, American poet (born March 18, 1953, Vienna, Austria—died May 14, 2015, Waltham, Mass.), wrote precise, stark, unflinching poems that addressed pain, loneliness, addiction, and spirituality. Wright, the son of poet James Wright, spent most of his early childhood in Minnesota. His parents divorced when he was eight, and he then lived with his mother in San Francisco. His first book of poetry, Tapping the White Cane of Solitude (1976), was published while he was a student at Oberlin College, from which he graduated in 1977. Despite worsening problems with alcoholism, drug addiction, and mental illness, he continued to produce respected works, in particular the collection Ill Lit: Selected & New Poems (1998). In 1999 he underwent what he described as a religious awakening and was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church; he left addiction behind him. His later works include The Beforelife (2001); Walking to Martha’s Vineyard (2003), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Wheeling Motel (2009); and F (2013). In addition, Wright translated poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke and René Char. His other honours included fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1985; 1992), the Guggenheim Foundation (1989), and the Whiting Foundation (1991), and he was granted the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry in 1996.
Franz Paul Wright
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
James Wright, American poet of the postmodern era who wrote about sorrow, salvation, and self-revelation, often drawing on his native Ohio River valley for images of nature and industry. In 1972…
Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke, Austro-German poet who became internationally famous with such works as Duino Elegiesand Sonnets to Orpheus.…
René Char, French poet who began as a Surrealist but who, after his experiences as a Resistance leader in World War II, wrote economical verse with moralistic overtones. After completing his education in Provence, Char moved in the late 1920s to…