The Daily Iowan MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2021 THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COMMUNITY SINCE 1868 DAILYIOWAN.COM 50¢ Remembering Marvin Bell The poet and 40-year Iowa Writers’ Workshop professor died on Dec. 14 at the age of 83, having touched the lives of many and leaving a long withstanding legacy of written work in his wake. Iowa’s First Poet Laureate Illustration by Kate Doolittle BY JOSIE FISCHELS he had many times before. ems by Bell, so many that the host of the event, Prairie Lights Book-
[email protected] “You are not beautiful, exactly. You are beautiful, inexactly.” store, had to upgrade its Zoom subscription to fit them all. The subject of Bell’s poem, his wife Dorothy Bell, stroked his arm Bell died a little over a month later on Dec. 14, after undergoing In a soft navy vest over a buttoned shirt, poet Marvin Bell read and back just out of sight as Bell closed the reading — a three-hour treatment for aggressive, late-stage stomach cancer since Septem- his poem, “To Dorothy” on a couch in front of his MacBook. A pair Zoom his friend, International Writing Program Director Christo- ber. The poet was surrounded by his family when he died, the stereo of dark rimmed glasses bobbed atop his round nose as he spoke to pher Merrill, put together in his honor in November. More than 600 the screen in a softened but confident voice, reciting the words as people from all over the world attended to share their favorite po- SEE MARVIN BELL, 3 UI COVID-19 NUMBERS DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION IN THE COLLEGE OF DENTISTRY Number of self-reported cases for COVID-19 Students: 11 new cases, 2,935 Course set to-date Employees: 4 new cases, 428 to-date Data reflect since Feb.