Louis S. Asekoff (born December 17, 1939) is an American poet and professor emeritus. Asekoff often incorporates surrealist imagery and monologue into his poetry, which is concerned with both the imagistic and aural dimensions of language. Asekoff's unconventional use of monologue as a poetic instrument is suggestive of "the inability of words to properly convey meaning" and a vehicle for implicating the readers who become "members of his poetic universe."Goykadosh, Bracha. "Freedom Hill." Booklist 108.7 (2011): 10. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 19 Aug. 2015. In 2012, Poet laureate Philip Levine, who selected Asekoff for the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize, described Asekoff as "a true surreal visionary."
Asekoff taught poetry and coordinated the MFA Poetry Program at Brooklyn College for 42 years, where he also served as a Faculty Associate for The Wolfe Institute for Humanities.
Derek Mahon’s poem “The Snow Party” was dedicated to Asekoff.
Background Asekoff was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, a small industrial city near Boston. The son of a psychiatrist, he grew up on the grounds of the psychiatric hospitals Danvers State and Metropolitan State Hospital.
Selected publications Books Dreams of a Work (1994, Orchises Press) North Star (1997, Orchises Press) The Gate of Horn (2010, Triquarterly) Freedom Hill: a poem (2011, Triquarterly).
Selected Poems Online Academy of American Poets ColdFront Magazine Slate Boston Review The Cortland Review The New Yorker Poetry Penn Sound
Selected awards Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry, 2013 Witter Bynner Fellowship, 2012 Pushcart, 2011 NEA Literature Fellowship Recipient, 1997 NYFA Fellowship, Poetry, 1997 Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize, 1993 Fund for Poetry
References
External links Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: Letters to Louis Asekoff, 1963-1988