Professor Emeritus
English
Prior to retiring in 2010, I taught graduate and undergraduate courses in American literary modernism, including the work of writers such as Wallace Stevens, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Richard Wright, and William Carlos Williams. In addition, I designed and taught courses in the literature of the Vietnam War, environmental literature, and narrative theory.
These are also the fields in which I have done most of my research and publication. Since 2010 I have published chiefly poetry and a work of creative nonfiction, The Bark River Chronicles: Stories from a Wisconsin Watershed.
Publications
- Stand Still in the Light. Poetry collection. Finishing Line Press, 2019. Recognition: Pushcart Prize nomination.
- As They Were. Poetry chapbook. YellowJacket Press, 2018. Recognition: runner-up, Peter Meinke Poetry Prize
- Always on Fire. Poetry chapbook. Five Oaks Press, 2016. Recognition: Pushcart Prize nomination.
- The Bark River Chronicles: Stories from a Wisconsin Watershed. Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012.
- Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959-1975, two volumes, Library of America, 1998 (co-editor). One-volume paperback edition with Foreword, 2000.
- The Wars We Took to Vietnam: Cultural Conflict and Storytelling. University of California Press, 1996. Recognition: Alpha Sigma Nu National Jesuit Book Award in Literature for 1996-1998; Kenneth Kingery Scholarly Book Award, Council for Wisconsin Writers.
- Sur Plusieurs Beaux Sujects: Wallace Stevens’ Commonplace Book. Stanford University Press and the Huntington Library, 1989. Facsimile edition with transcription, introduction, and notes.
- Opus Posthumous, by Wallace Stevens. Revised, enlarged, and corrected edition. Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Faber, 1990. Vintage-Random paperback, 1990.
- Wallace Stevens: A Mythology of Self. University of California Press, 1985. Spanish translation, Fraterna, 1989. Recognition: New York Times Notable Book of 1985; Outstanding Achievement in Literature, Wisconsin Library Association.
Honors and Awards
- Writer of the Year Award, City of Marquette (MI) Arts and Culture Center (2020)
- Huntington Library Summer Research Fellowships (1978, 1979)
- American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships (1980, 1986-1987)
- National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend (1985)
- Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1989-1990)
- Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship, Beijing Foreign Studies University (2000)
- Fulbright Senior Lectureship, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2006)
Dr. Milton J. BatesMarquette University
