Philip Dacey
Selected Bibliography
The Boy Under the Bed (1981)
Gerard Manley Hopkins Meets Walt Whitman in Heaven and Other Poems (1982)
The Man With Red Suspenders (1986)
Strong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Forms (1986)
Night Shift at the Crucifix Factory (1991)
The Paramour of the Moving Air (1999)
The Deathbed Playboy (1999)
Mosquito Operas: New and Selected Short Poems (2010)
Gimme Five (2013)
Church of the Adagio (2014)
Philip Dacey (1939-July 7, 2016), originally from St. Louis, earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University. He studied at Stanford, earning an MA, and later at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, earning an MFA. In the 1960s, Dacey volunteered for the Peace Corps in Nigeria, and he also went to Yugoslavia on a Fulbright Scholarship. Before moving to Minnesota, Dacey taught at Miles College in Alabama. He taught at Southwest Minnesota State University for over thirty years, directing the creative writing program and founding the Minnesota Writers’ Festival.
Dacey is primarily a poet, publishing thirteen poetry collections. His 2013 collection of poetry, Gimme Five, received the Blue Light Press Book Award. Dacey has received critical acclaim for previous collections The Mystery of Max Schmitt: Poems on the Life and Work of Thomas Eakins and Vertebrae Rosaries: Fifty Sonnets. Some of his poetry has been set to music. Dacey’s comprehension of and proficiency at traditional forms of verse have made him a unique addition to the canon of Minnesota writers.