Soldofsky, Alan
Date Updated
12-5-2024
Department
English and Comparative Literature
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
2024
Facebook or Website URL
Educational Background
- University of Iowa, English (Creative Writing - Poetry), Master of Fine Arts, 1973
- University of Iowa, English (Creative Writing), BA 1972
Teaching Experience
A graduate of the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop, Alan Soldofsky joined the San Jose State faculty in 1985 and directed first the San Jose Poetry Center, then the SJSU Center for Literary Arts, before being appointed director of the Creative Writing Program in 1999.
Administrative and Professional Experience
Alan Soldofsky directs the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English & Comparative Literature, and is the coordinator of the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing. His field is contemporary poetry and poetics.
Service
As a poet, critic, and literary programs organizer, Alan Soldofsky has been active in the Bay Area poetry community since 1973.
Selected Publications
As a poet Alan Soldofsky is best known for his 2013 poetry collection In the Buddha Factory (Truman State University Press). He also published three chapbooks of poems: Kenora Station, Staying Home, and Holding Adam / My Father's Books, that includes a selection of poems by his son, the poet Adam Soldofsky. With David Koehn he is coeditor of a book on poetic craft by Donald Justice, Compendium: A Collection of Thoughts About Prosody (Omindawn). Justice is a noted poet Soldofsky studied with at the Iowa Writers Workshop. In addition, Soldofsky frequently contributed poems and essays to a variety of print and online literary journals and anthologies. Notable among them are: Catamaran, Fence, The Gettysburg Review, Grist, The L.A. Review of Books, MELUS Journal, Poetry Flash, Poem-a-Day (Academy of American Poets), Puerto del Sol, Vox Populi, California Fire and Water: Climate Change Anthology, The William Carlos Williams Review, and The Writer’s Chronicle. As a literary critic and scholar, Soldofsky is best known for his writings on modern and contemporary poets, in particular Robinson Jeffers, W.S. Merwin, and poets of the San Francisco Renaissance—Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, and Joanne Kyger among them.
Books
Alan Soldofsky. "Resilience of the Oracular in W.S. Merwin’s “Forgotten Language”" American Literature Readings in the 21st Century (2022): 229-257. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13157-8_12 https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/3414/
Justice, Donald. Compendium : A Collection of Thoughts on Prosody. Edited by David Koehn and Alan Soldofsky, Omnidawn Publishing, 2017. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/198/
Soldofsky, Alan. In the Buddha Factory. Truman State University Press, 2013. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/87/
Alan Soldofsky and Lyman Piersma. Staying Home. Berkeley, CA: Steam Press, 1977.
Soldofsky, Alan. Kenora Station: [Poems]. Berkeley, CA: Steam Press, 1976.
Soldofsky, Alan. "Nature and Symbolic Order: The Dialogue Between Czeslaw Milosz and Robinson Jeffers" In Brophy, Robert J., et al. Robinson Jeffers : The Dimensions of a Poet. Fordham University Press, 1995.
Selected Poems in Periodicals
"Museum of Natural Light" Glint Literary Journal (2023) https://glintjournal.wordpress.com/glint-12-poetry-alan-soldofsky/
"Awful Truths" Pangyrus (2023) https://www.pangyrus.com/poetry/awful-truths/
"Denis Johnson Tapped Me on the Shoulder: Notes from His Last Sonoma County Outpost," "Lucky Seven" Los Angeles Review of Books (2022) https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/for-dj-remembering-denis-johnson/
"Want Not" Fence (2022) https://fenceportal.org/want-not/
"Late Days," Vox Populi (2022) https://voxpopulisphere.com/2022/03/22/alan-soldofsky-late-days/
"Entitled" Vox Populi (2021) https://voxpopulisphere.com/2021/03/30/alan-soldofsky-entitled/
"Urgent" Catamaran (2021) print
Three Poems: "On Notice," "Brace for Impact," "Flare Up" Poetry Flash (2021) https://poetryflash.org/poems/?p=SOLDOFSKY-Poems
"For Marvin Bell" Los Angeles Review of Books (2020) https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/for-marvin-bell/
"Bear," "Amaryllis," "Biology" Puerto del Sol (2018) -- print
Alan Soldofsky, "Sense of Place," Poetry Flash (2013) https://poetryflash.org/poems/?p=SOLDOFSKY-Sense_of_Place
Alan Soldofsky. "Palm Haven and Present" DMQ Review (2013) https://www.dmqreview.com/spring-2013
Alan Soldofsky. "At West Lake, Morning Postcard, After Visiting Tiantai Mountain" Poetry East West: English-Chinese Bilingual Poetry Magazine(2012). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/23/
Alan Soldofsky. "Recovery at Lake Tahoe" Rattle (2012). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/39/
Alan Soldofsky. "Wandering Around" The Gettysburg Review (2012). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/46/
Alan Soldofsky. "Country" The Rattling Wall Iss. 2 (2011)
Alan Soldofsky. "Early Night" Rattle (2009). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/28/
Alan Soldofsky. "Twirl" Poetry Flash (2009)
Alan Soldofsky. "Bon Voyage" The North American Review (2007). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/26/
Alan Soldofsky. "Concerning an Old Family Photograph" Reed Magazine Vol. 59 (2006)
Alan Soldofsky. "Jack Tone Road" Crab Orchard Review Vol. 11 Iss. 2 (2006)
Alan Soldofsky. "Awakening" The North American Review (2005). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/24/
Alan Soldofsky. "Idle Time" Konch Magazine (2005)
Alan Soldofsky. "Flood and In Character" The Fiddlehead (2004). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/31/
Alan Soldofsky. "Twentieth Century Portrait" Rattle (2004). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/45/
Alan Soldofsky. "After the Deluge and Weekend" Red Rock Review (2003). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/21/
Alan Soldofsky. "Anniversaries of Autumn and Beyond Where I Have Ever Traveled" The Gettysburg Review (2003). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/22/
Alan Soldofsky. "Melville" The Georgia Review (2003). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/36/
Alan Soldofsky. "Millennium Jukebox" The Greensboro Review Vol. 74 (2003)
Alan Soldofsky. "Morning in Paradiso" The North American Review (2002). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/37/
Alan Soldofsky. "Testament for the Panic Stricken, The Institution, Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst, and Walking the Fire Road" Reed Magazine Vol. 55 (2002)
Alan Soldofsky. "Autumn in California" The Blue Sofa Review Vol. 2 Iss. 1 (2000)
Alan Soldofsky. "Opening Statement" Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Letters and Life Iss. 7 (2000)
Alan Soldofsky. "Thirteen" in Goldstein, Laurence. The Male Body : Features, Destinies, Exposures. University of Michigan Press, 1997. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/43/
Alan Soldofsky. "Starry Night" Manoa (1994): 16. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/41/
Alan Soldofsky. "First Day" Manoa (1994): 16-17. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/30/
Alan Soldofsky. "Inventory" Cream City Review (1993): 32. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/33/
Alan Soldofsky. "Poplar Catkins" Manoa Fall (1993): 15-16. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/38/
Alan Soldofsky. "Chin Music" The Gettysburg Review (1992). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/27/
Alan Soldofsky. "The Beginning of Summer" Grand Street Vol. 42 (1992)
Alan Soldofsky. "Wherever Lives Go" The Blue Mesa Review Vol. 3 Iss. 3 (1992)
Alan Soldofsky. "1968" Red Dirt: International Crosscultural Poetry Iss. 2 (1991)
Alan Soldofsky. "Second Growth" Indiana Review (1991). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/40/
Alan Soldofsky. "Ghazal" The Antioch Review (1990). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/32/
Alan Soldofsky. "Hitchhiking" The California Quarterly Vol. 25 (1984)
Alan Soldofsky. "Holding Adam" The Napa Review Vol. 2 (1984)
Alan Soldofsky. "Elegy" Berkeley Poetry Review (1981). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/29/
Alan Soldofsky. "Descendant and Choosing the Name" Poetry East Iss. 6 (1981)
Poems in Anthologies
Alan Soldofsky. "Chin Music" in Wideman, John Edgar. Motion : American Sports Poems. Edited by Noah Blaustein. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001.
Alan Soldofsky. "The North" in Bednarik, Joseph. The Sumac Reader. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press,1997.
Alan Soldofsky. "Thirteen" in Goldstein, Laurence. The Male Body : Features, Destinies, Exposures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. This article was originally published in the Michigan Quarterly Review. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/43/
Articles in Literary Periodicals
"William Carlos Williams and West Coast Poetic Culture: Personalist Poetics from Paterson to Bolinas Mesa" William Carlos Williams Review (2023) https://muse.jhu.edu/article/900651/summary
"The Geography of Heaven: Al Young 1939 - 2021" The Writer's Chronicle (2021) https://archives.awpwriter.org/magazine_media/writers_chronicle_view/4793/the_geography_of_heaven_al_young_19392021
"Those to Whom Interesting Things Happen: William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth, Lew Welch, and Joanne Kyger, and the Genome of the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance" William Carlos Williams Review (2018) https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/willcarlwillrevi.35.2.0164
"A Border-Crosser's Heteroglosssia: Interview with Juan Felipe Herrera, Twenty-First Poet Laureate of the United States" MELUS Journal (2018) https://academic.oup.com/melus/article-abstract/43/2/196/5001909
Alan Soldofsky. "The Lyric Self: Artifice and Authenticity in Recent American Poetry" The Writer’s Chronicle (2006): 42-49. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/42/
Alan Soldofsky. "Bifurcated Narratives in the Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, C.K. Williams, and Denis Johnson" Narrative: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Narrative Literature (2003). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/25/
Alan Soldofsky. "The Prophet as Confessionalist: The Place of the Personal in the Poetry of Robinson Jeffers" Jeffers Studies Vol. 5 Iss. 1 (2002) https://robinsonjeffersassociation.org/robinson-jeffers-a-bibliography-of-criticism-2000-2017/2000-2017/
Alan Soldofsky. "Jeffers, Anti-Modernism, and A Thousand Years" Quarry West Iss. 27 (1990)
Alan Soldofsky. "Reading Rexroth" Quarry West Iss. 22 (1986)
Alan Soldofsky. "Notes for Reading Palmer" Ironwood Vol. 10 Iss. 1 (1982)
Alan Soldofsky. "John Logan: A Retrospective" Poetry Flash (1981). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/34/
Alan Soldofsky. "Workshop Poetry" Poetry Flash (1979). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/47/
Alan Soldofsky. "Language and Narcissism" Poetry Flash (1979). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/35/
Alan Soldofsky. "Towards a Poetics of Narcissism" Poetry Flash (1979). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub/44/
Interviews With
"The Third Degree: Alan Soldofsky Puerto del Sol (2017) https://www.puertodelsol.org/single-post/2017/01/27/The-Third-Degree-Alan-Soldofsky
"Alan Soldofsky On Awakening to the Extraordinary Qualities of Ordinary Things" Quiet Lightning (2016) https://quietlightning.org/columns/the-write-stuff/alan-soldofsky/
Files
Personal Commentary
I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to teach at a major regional university and to lead the Creative Writing program here at San Jose State. I know it is not easy to find a full time career in Creative Writing, and to work as a poet. I’m very pleased that my poems are being read and that my last book In the Buddha Factory is being used at a number of colleges and universities in California and across the country.