English Prof Pete Fairchild Wins Book Critics Circle Award


Cal State San Bernardino English Professor B.H. “Pete” Fairchild has won the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award for his book of poetry describing the visions of dreamers.
Fairchild, a native of Kansas who has taught creative writing and poetry at Cal State since 1983, received the award at a ceremony in New York for his book, “Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest.” The National Book Critics Circle consists of about 700 book reviewers from across the United States.

Fairchild’s new book describes the visions of anguished dreamers in his native Kansas—failed baseball players, oil field laborers and a surrealist priest. Poet Anthony Hecht praised the book, saying “There is no more lyric celebration of America’s grandeurs and desolations… than this superb collection of poems.”

The author’s previous book of poetry, “The Art of the Lathe,” won the Kingsley Tufts and the William Carlos Williams awards. It also won the Arthur Rense Poetry Prize in 2002, carrying a $20,000 purse.

For more information, contact CSUSB public affairs office at (909) 880-5007.