Charles O. Hartman

Charles O. Hartman was born on August 1, 1949, in Iowa City, and earned a BA from Harvard University and both an MA and PhD from Washington University in St. Louis.

Hartman has published eight poetry collections, including Downfall of the Straight Line (Arrowsmith Press, 2024); New & Selected Poems (Ahsahta Press, 2008); and Island: Poems (Ahsahta Press, 2004). He has also translated the work of Yannis Ritsos and maintains those translations in an online archive. His poetry has also appeared in numerous anthologies, including In Like Company: The Salt River Review & Porch Anthology (MadHat Press, 2015), edited by James Cervantes.

Additionally, Hartman has published a textbook, Verse: An Introduction to Prosody (Wiley, 2015), and three books of critical prose: Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody (Princeton University Press, 2014); Virtual Muse: Experiments in Computer Poetry (Wesleyan University Press, 2011); and Jazz Text: Voice and Improvisation in Poetry, Jazz, and Song (Princeton University Press, 1991). He coedited with Pamela Alexander, Martha Collins, and Matthew Krajniak, a volume on poet Wendy Battin, titled Wendy Battin: On the Life & Work of an American Master (2020), for the Unsung Masters Series. 

Hartman is the Lucy Marsh Haskell ’19 Professor of English at Connecticut College, where he has taught since 1990. He is the cofounder with Battin of the Contemporary American Poetry Archive (CAPA), where out-of-print volumes of poetry are preserved online and can be accessed free of charge by anyone with Internet access.