David Bromige

Often associated with Language poetry, David Bromige was born in London in 1933. He received a BA from the University of British Columbia in 1962 and studied for a MA and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Bromige taught at Sonoma State University in California for 23 years and was professor emeritus at the time of his death. He was hailed by Carolyn Jones in the San Francisco Chronicle as a “mentor to hundreds of young poets … known for his generous spirit and impeccable syntax.” The poet D.A. Powell has described Bromige’s poetry as “filled with paradoxes and quiet inquiries into the cognitive domain of language.”

The 2001–2003 Sonoma State Poet Laureate, Bromige published dozens of books and garnered many awards during his lifetime. His accolades include two NEA fellowships, a Pushcart Prize, two Poetry Foundation prizes, and a 1988 Western States Arts Federation award for his collection Desire: Selected Poems, 1963–1987, published by Black Sparrow Press.

Among his many published works are The Gathering (1965), The Ends of the Earth (1968), Ten Years in the Making: Selected Poems, Songs & Stories, 1961–1970 (1974), My Poetry (1980), Romantic Traceries (1993), A Cast of Tens (1994), and As in T, As in Tether (2002).

 

Bromige died in Sebastopol, California, in June 2009.