O'Grady, Tom 1943-
O'Grady, Tom 1943-
PERSONAL:
Born August 26, 1943, in Baltimore, MD; son of Thomas Joseph II (in dry cleaning business) and Sallie Mapp (a practical nurse) Grady; married Frances Griessner (divorced November 15, 1973); married Bronwyn Southworth (a college professor), December 21, 1973; children: (second marriage) Thomas Savage (deceased), Ethan Southworth (adopted), Ryan Dennis. Ethnicity: "Irish/American." Education: University of Baltimore, B.A., 1966; Johns Hopkins University, M.A., 1967; attended University of Delaware, 1971-73. Politics: Independent. Religion: Episcopalian.
ADDRESSES:
Home and office—Hampden-Sydney, VA. E-mail—togrady@hsc.edu.
CAREER:
Rose Bower Vineyard and Winery, Hampden-Sydney, VA, owner and winemaker, 1973—. Hampden-Sydney College, adjunct associate professor of English and poet in residence, 1974—. Virginia Governor's Wine Growing Advisory Board, member, 1985-88; vineyard consultant. U.S. Coast Guard, holder of master's license for fifty-ton vessels. Military service: U.S. Army, 1967-69; became staff sergeant.
MEMBER:
U.S. Power and Sail Squadron.
AWARDS, HONORS:
Literature fellow, University of Delaware, 1972-74; Leache Prize for Poetry, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, 1975; National Endowment for the Arts, poetry residency, 1976-78, and editors' award, 1977; Impact Book Award, 1979, for The Farmville Elegies; Virginia Prize for Poetry, 1989, for In the Room of the Just Born; Teacher of the Arts Award, National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, 1990; grants from Virginia Commission for the Arts.
WRITINGS:
Establishing a Vineyard (poetry; bilingual edition), Editions Saint-Germain-des-Pres (Paris, France), 1977.
The Farmville Elegies (poetry), Commentator's Press (San Francisco, CA), 1981.
In the Room of the Just Born (poetry), Dolphin Moon Press (Baltimore, MD), 1989.
Carvings of the Moon (poetry chapbook), Dolphin Moon Press (Baltimore, MD), 1992.
Shaking the Tree (essays), Dolphin Moon Press (Baltimore, MD), 1993.
Sun, Moon, and Stars (poetry), Tryon Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1996.
(With Joe Robinette) The Gardens of November (play), first produced in Farmville, VA, at Waterworks Theater, 1996.
(With Joe Robinette) Remote Controls: Three One-Act Plays, first produced in Farmville, VA, at Waterworks Theater, 1997.
The Same Earth, the Same Sky: New and Selected Poems and Translations, Tryon Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 2002.
Founding editor, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, 1974—.
TRANSLATOR
(With Paul Jagasich) Jaroslav Seifert, The Casting of Bells (poetry), Spirit that Moves Us (Iowa City, IA), 1983.
(With Paul Jagasich) Jaroslav Seifert, Mozart in Prague (poetry chapbook), Spirit that Moves Us (Iowa City, IA), 1985.
(With Paul Jagasich) Jaroslav Seifert, Eight Days (poetry chapbook), Spirit that Moves Us (Iowa City, IA), 1985.
(With Paul Jagasich) Jaroslav Seifert, Dressed in Light (poetry chapbook), Spirit that Moves Us (Iowa City, IA), 1990.
SIDELIGHTS:
Tom O'Grady once told CA: "Over more than thirty years I have been an editor, teacher, poet, winemaker, and sometime playwright, and so my time has been filled. Add sailboat restoration and blue-water sailing, and you will see that my writing time, when I can find it, is precious. I write in spurts and put aside other paying work that I should be doing when the Muses call. I have worked in both open and closed forms of poetry throughout my life, and my books contain both. Lately I have discovered the mid-nineteenth-century work of Pushkin, Baudelaire, and others, and I have been translating from ‘ponies’ (literal translations supplied by language teacher friends). My new poems show a bit more humor than I've noticed before."