James Reiss, American poet and novelist, Died at 75

James Reiss was born on July 11, 1941, and died on December 2, 2016.

He was an American poet and novelist.

His name pronounced “Reese” grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City and in northern New Jersey.

James earned his B.A. and his M.A. in English from the University of Chicago.

Reiss’ poems have appeared in magazines that include The Atlantic, Esquire, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Poetry, Slate, and Virginia Quarterly Review.

He has won grants from the Creative Artists Public Service Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council.

Reiss has received awards from, among others, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Society of America, the Pushcart Press and the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

Reiss was a regular poetry critic for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1971-1974.

During 1977, Reiss won first prize in New York’s Big Apple Bicentennial Poetry Contest.

Reiss won four annual Zeitfunk awards for his reviewing, in 2007-2010, from the Public Radio Exchange, PRX.

During 1975-76, Reiss taught as poet-in-residence at Queens College, CUNY.

Reiss was Professor Emeritus of English and Founding Editor of Miami University Press at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

James Reiss passed away at 75 years old.