Vol. 65 No. 21 January 29, 2019
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UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Tuesday January 29, 2019 Volume 65 Number 21 www.upenn.edu/almanac Penn Medicine: 25 Years of Charles Bernstein: Bollingen Prize for Poetry Integration, Innovation and Ideals University of Pennsylvania Professor Charles is the Donald T. Re- After 25 years, the combined mission of pa- Bernstein has been named the winner of the gan Professor of Eng- tient care, medical education and research that 2019 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry; it lish and Compara- defines Penn Medicine is a proven principle. As is is among the most prestigious prizes given to tive Literature in the Penn Medicine’s model has evolved over this American writers. School of Arts and Sci- quarter century, it has continually demonstrat- The Bollingen Prize is awarded biennially to ences (Almanac Febru- ed itself to be visionary, collaborative, resilient an American poet for the best book published ary 8, 2005). He is also and pioneering, all while maintaining Frank- during the previous two years, or for lifetime known for his transla- lin’s core, altruistic values of serving the greater achievement in poetry, by the Yale University tions and collabora- good and advancing knowledge. Library through the Beinecke Rare Book and tions with artists and Penn Medicine’s reach and impact would im- Manuscript Library. The Prize was originally libretti. With Al Filreis, press the lifelong teacher and inventor as well. conferred by the Library of Congress with funds Penn’s Kelly Family One of the first integrated academic health sys- established in 1948 by the philanthropist Paul Professor of English, tems in the nation, the University of Pennsylva- Mellon. An admirer of the psychoanalyst Carl Mr. Bernstein is the co- nia Health System (UPHS) grew from a medical Jung, Mellon named the prize after the Swiss founder of PennSound, school with one owned teaching hospital and a town where Jung spent his summers. In 1949 an extensive archive of Charles Bernstein network of physician practices in the early years the first award was made to Ezra Pound, forThe recorded poetry, which to a sprawling $8 billion enterprise with six acute- Pisan Cantos. He had studied at Penn as an un- features a robust library of Mr. Bernstein’s po- care hospitals and hundreds of outpatient practic- dergraduate and got his masters here as well. etry readings as well as poetry by Penn alumni es that serves a diverse group of patients across In 1950 the award was transferred to the Yale Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. the continuum of care and across the region, from University Library, through the Beinecke Rare “Penn has provided the ideal place for me to Center City Philadelphia to central New Jersey to Book and Manuscript Library under the aus- write and teach poetry and poetics. Conversa- the western reaches of Lancaster County, Penn- pices of which it has since been administered. tions with fellow writers, researchers, teachers sylvania. Alongside its clinical care, Penn Med- Originally annual, it became biennial in 1964. and especially students—graduate and under- icine—as it is known today, encompassing both The prize includes a cash award of $165,000. graduate—have so deeply enriched my thinking UPHS and the Perelman School of Medicine— Mr. Bernstein is the author of numerous and work that I can’t imagine that I could have boasts one of the nation’s top-regarded education books of poetry, including Near/Miss, published won the Bollingen without them. The English and training programs for 21st century physicians last year, Recalculating, and All the Whiskey in and Comparative Literature departments, and within mere steps of a small city of cutting-edge Heaven: Selected Poems, among many others. the astounding Kelly Writers House, along with research facilities producing translational discov- His collections of essays include Pitch of Po- PennSound, have been my intellectual home. eries that have elevated the institution into the etry, Attack of the Difficult Poems: Essays and Part of this prize surely goes to them,” Mr. Ber- higher levels of advanced medicine. Inventions and A Poetics. nstein said. “We serve the region with the most ad- “The Bollingen is the ultimate American “We are thrilled that the 2019 Bollingen vanced medical procedures as well as conve- poetry prize, and the honor of this award turns Prize judges have honored Charles Bernstein, a nient and geographically distributed primary to pure delight when I acknowledge the award poet whose creative and critical work has for de- care,” said Ralph W. Muller, chief executive of- committee,” Mr. Bernstein said. “I am over- cades enlivened American poetry and poetics,” ficer of UPHS. “Our innovations in patient care whelmed at being in the company of my fellow said Bollingen Prize director Nancy Kuhl, cura- are models for the nation, as we both anticipate Bollingen winners, who include so many poets tor of poetry for the Yale Collection of Ameri- and shape what patients need.” whom I read with supreme astonishment. How can Literature at the Beinecke Library. “The po- In the early 1990s, under then-CEO and great that Near/Miss has been so warmly wel- ems in his latest book, Near/Miss, explore the Dean William N. Kelley, transforming Penn’s comed into the world.” very nature of poetry.” traditional academic center—a teaching hospi- Mr. Bernstein is the 51st poet to be hon- Mr. Bernstein was elected a Fellow of the tal, medical school and research facilities—into ored with the award and joins a list of past win- American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2006. an integrated system was viewed as a bold but ners that also includes W.H. Auden, Marianne Other awards and honors include Janus Pan- necessary move. Penn’s medical leaders saw in- Moore, Wallace Stevens, Louise Bogan, Léonie nonius Grand Prize for Poetry (Almanac Sep- tegration as a path to greater patient reach in a Adams, Robert Frost and Robert Penn Warren, tember 1, 2015), the Münster Prize for Inter- changing health-care market. Combining that as well as contemporary poets Susan Howe, national Poetry, a John Simon Guggenheim with stronger cultural integration among the pil- Charles Wright, Louise Glück, Nathaniel Mack- Memorial Fellowship and a National Endow- lars of the academic center and heavy invest- ey and Jean Valentine. ment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. ments in research infrastructure, Penn could le- “As poet, editor, critic, translator and educa- He also received a Lindback Award in 2009 (Al- verage that integration to cement its place as a tor, Charles Bernstein’s decades-long commit- manac April 21, 2009) national leader in medicine. ment to the community of arts and letters reflects The three-judge panel included poet Ange But there were bumps in the road. In the late a profound understanding of the importance of (continued on page 3) 1990s, a few years after its establishment, UPHS language in the business of culture-making,” the was one of many health-care organizations in a three-member prize judging committee said. INSIDE precarious financial situation. While some ac- “His extraordinary new collection of poems, 2 Senate: SEC Actions; Deaths; ademic centers questioned holding onto their Near/Miss, finds Bernstein deploying his char- People-Powered Scholarship at the Libraries 3 Penn’s Way: Thanks A Million; hospital counterparts, Penn ultimately managed acteristically incisive satire and sharp wit to dis- Council: Open Forum Format itself out of its difficulties through governance mantle the clichés driving public speech. Yet, in 4 Netter Center Grants and financial restructuring, heightened integra- moments treading close to heartbreak, the work 5 Research Roundup tion with the University, and fresh leadership, sounds the depths where the public poet must 6 Penn Vet’s Mobile Clinic; One Step Ahead: Security and Privacy Tip which put it on a more sustainable and success- find the words for private grief. Bernstein’s 7 IRS & Taxes; Update; CrimeStats: Book Discussion ful path (Almanac April 4, 2000). Staff loyalty work interrogates, restlessly, seemingly word 8 Talk About Teaching and Learning persisted, and patient care, research and educa- by word, language and its performative nature.” Pullouts: February AT PENN 2019 Summer Camps at Penn (continued on page 3) On Penn’s faculty since 2003, Mr. Bernstein ALMANAC January 29, 2019 www.upenn.edu/almanac 1 SENATE From the Senate Office Deaths Wendy Ashmore, The following is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Among other purposes, Anthropology and Penn Museum the publication of SEC actions is intended to stimulate discussion among the constituencies and Wendy Ashmore, former associate professor in their representatives. Please communicate your comments to Patrick Walsh, executive assistant to Penn’s department of anthropology and emeritus the Senate Office, either by telephone at (215) 898-6943 or by email [email protected] fellow of the Museum’s Kolb Society, died January 8 in Riverside, California, after a long battle with two auto-immune diseases. She was 70. Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions Dr. Ashmore was born in Los Angeles and Wednesday, January 23, 2019 earned her BA in anthropology from UCLA in Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair Jennifer Pinto-Martin reported that a “Your Big Wellness 1969. She began her career in academia as a teach- Idea” contest will be launched later in the spring 2019 semester. Faculty are encouraged to help with ing fellow in anthropology at Penn from 1974 to the planning and the judging efforts by contacting the Senate Office. When the contest launches, 1979. She then went to Rutgers, where she began anyone may submit a “Big Wellness Idea” for consideration by a review committee. Entries will be as an adjunct instructor and moved up to associate ranked by a judging panel and at least one idea will be funded for roll-out during the next academic professor.