1933—2022

Richard W. Shelton was a writer, poet, and emeritus Regents Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arizona. Shelton published twelve books and chapbooks of poetry. Shelton's first book, The Tattooed Desert, won the International Poetry Forum's United States Award in 1970. His fourth book, The Bus to Veracruz, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His poems and essays appeared in more than 200 magazines and literary journals, including the New Yorker, Poetry, Harper’s, the Atlantic, the Paris Review, Kayak, American Poetry Review, and the Antioch Review. He received two National Endowment for the Arts Writer’s Fellowships, one in poetry and one in nonfiction.

In 1974, Shelton established a creative writer’s workshop at the Arizona State Prison. Over the years, that program has expanded to include many prison workshops, four of which operated with the support of the Lannan Foundation. Many books of poetry and prose by the incarcerated in these workshops have been published, including the anthology Do Not Go Gentle (1977, Blue Moon Press). Shelton wrote Crossing the Yard: Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer (2007, University of Arizona Press) about his experiences with this work.

Shelton served two terms as president of the Associated Writing Programs (AWP) and was National Honorary Chancellor of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Shelton was director of the creative writing program and the Poetry Center at the University of Arizona. He died in 2022.