William Corbett

1942 –
2018
Read poems by this poet

William Corbett was born on October 11, 1942. He received a BA from Lafayette College in 1964.

Corbett published numerous collections of poetry, including Elegies for Michael Gizzi (Kat Ran Press, 2012), The Whalen Poem (Hanging Loose Press, 2011), and Opening Day (Hanging Loose Press, 2008).

He also authored a memoir, Furthering My Education (Zoland Books, 1997); two collections of literary essays; books on artists, including painter Philip Guston; and edited The Letters of James Schulyer (Turtle Point Press, 2004).

A longtime resident of Boston, where he was known for hosting literary salons, he taught at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and, later, New York University. He was a cofounder of the Somerville-based Pressed Wafer publishing house. He died of pancreatic cancer on August 10, 2018, in Brooklyn, New York.