John Dickson

Poet John Dickson was born in Chicago in 1916 and lived in Evanston, Illinois, for much of his life. He attended Furman College in Greenville, South Carolina, and was a grain trader for the Chicago Board of Trade. Dickson published his first poem in 1968; after he retired from trading, he devoted himself full time to writing, publishing four poetry collections: Victoria Hotel (1979), Waving at Trains (1986), The Music of Solid Objects (1997), and Lake Michigan Scrolls (2002). Also a short story writer, Dickson’s stories were published in the Best American Short Stories anthologies of 1961 and 1969.

Dickson’s awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Friends of Literature Award; his work was one of the first featured on Chicago Poetry-on-the-Buses.