Ben Howard
Professor of English Emeritus
Emeritus Professor for the  Performing Arts

A native of eastern Iowa, Professor Howard is the author of six books, including Dark Pool (2004), Midcentury (1997) , The Pressed Melodeon (1996), and Lenten Anniversaries (1990). For the past three decades, he has contributed poems, essays, and reviews to literary journals here and abroad, including Poetry, Poetry Ireland Review, Shenandoah, , the Sewanee Review, and the Amicus Journal. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies, most recently 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day (Random House, 2005) and The POETRY Anthology (Ivan R. Dee, 2002).

From 1970 to 1995, Professor Howard directed Alfred University's Visiting Writers Series, bringing such writers as Allen Ginsberg, Seamus Heaney, Loren Eiseley, Czeslaw Milosz and Hayden Carruth to the Alfred campus. In 1995, Dr. Howard designed and directed Text 21: A Symposium on the Future of the Written Word.

Professor Howard earned his B.A. in English (1966) from Drake University, studying abroad at the University of Leeds (1964-1965). He holds an M.A. in English and Creative Writing (1969) and a Ph.D. in English Literature (1971) from Syracuse University. Dr. Howard also completed a post-doctoral seminar in eighteenth-century literature at Johns Hopkins University in 1975 and another in contemporary poetry at Yale University in 1979.

Professor Howard’s abiding interests, personal and professional, include Irish literature, modern poetry, classical guitar, and Buddhist meditation. Since 1998, he has been the coordinator of the Falling Leaf Zazenkai, a Zen sitting group that meets regularly on Sunday evenings to practice seated and walking meditation.