Obituaries

Van K. Brock

Photo of Van K. Brock
Van K. Brock, a Georgia-born poet, teacher, and editor, died on March 1 in Fayetteville, Ark., from complications of pancreatic cancer. He was 84. Brock was the author of several collections of poetry, including The Hard Essential Landscape and Lightered, and his poems appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker and The Yale Review, as well as in many anthologies. In the 1960s, he attended the famous Iowa Writers Workshop, receiving MFA and PhD degrees, and afterwards he taught poetry for three decades at Florida State University. He helped found and direct FSU's creative writing program, now one of the largest and best such programs in the nation. He also founded the independent poetry publisher Anhinga Press and the literary magazine now called The Southeast Review. According to poet Michael Heffernan, "Brock remains alive in his poems." Those poems, which Heffernan called "songs of the heart's belonging in the world," are known for their engagement with subjects such as the Holocaust and the American South. Brock's son Geoffrey, also a poet, and his daughter-in-law Padma Viswanathan, a novelist, are both on the faculty of the creative writing program at the University of Arkansas. His other survivors include his son Brantley, his daughter-in-law NeoMe, three step-daughters (Allison Pierce, Cheryl Manier, and Adrienne Johnson), and his grandchildren Ravi and Mira.

Published March 8, 2017

Upcoming Events