University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jonathan Holden
On December 20, 2024, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jonathan Holden passed away. (His obituary is available here.)
I had the good fortune to know Jonathan as a colleague in the Department of English since my arrival in 2000. When I became Department Head in 2007, I enjoyed learning even more about his work as a poet, a scholar, and a teacher.
Conversations in his office in Eisenhower Hall (EH 022C) always offered an opportunity to savor the power of language. As the photo below illustrates, our visits also provided an opportunity to confirm my own topographical approach for organizing office documents.
Jonathan’s career at K-State began in 1978 with his application to the Department Head of that year, Richard McGhee. In his cover letter, Jonathan explains how “my method of teaching introductory Creative Writing is highly structured”: “It is based upon the study of models, and it involves (in a disguised format) the writing of imitations,” noting, “My students have, on numerous occasions, thanked me for forcibly introducing them to rhetorical strategies and poetic forms in which they have (often to their astonishment) discovered new powers.”
This letter highlights the symbiosis between craft and analysis which has become a hallmark of Jonathan’s career.
“Indeed,” Jonathan writes in that letter of application, “I have come to regard Creative Writing as more that just a valuable complement to literature courses: it is a fine entry into literary studies.”
Accompanying this letter was a stapled set of poems – the first being “Leverage.” “Peter Rabbit,” “Nesting,” and “Fire” are also there.
His application was successful, of course, and so began an incredible career at Kansas State.
Confesses one subsequent department head, “My scheme of evaluation has burst its limits,” adding, “Your success is our pride.” Another remarks, “You are a dynamo, one of the main engines that drives this department, and all I want is for the engine to keep running as it has been.”
In 2013, in honor of his retirement, fellow poets and former students gathered to recognize Jonathan’s success.
Jonathan’s kinetic energy powered an amazing career, as the official citation for his retirement explains:
Arts and Sciences
Department of English
Jonathan Holden retires in August 2013 after 35 years of service to Kansas State.
Jonathan earned his B.A. (1963) in English from Oberlin College, his M.A. (1970) in English and creative writing from San Francisco State College, and his Ph.D. (1974) in English from the University of Colorado. Following a tenure-track appointment at Stephens College (1974-78), Jonathan joined the Department of English in 1978 as an assistant professor in creative writing. He earned tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1980, and he was promoted to Professor in 1984. In 1988, he earned the rank of University Distinguished Professor and the title Poet-in-Residence.
Jonathan is author of nineteen books across a range of genres, including but hardly limited to poetry. In addition to award-winning books of poetry, he has published six books of literary criticism, over 200 poems in more than eighty journals and anthologies, and over fifty essays and articles. He published his most recent collection of poetry in 2011 and continues work on his next monograph of literary criticism.
Within and beyond the university, Jonathan has received numerous accolades in recognition of his talents as a poet and a literary critic. Most notably, in 2004, Jonathan was named the first Poet Laureate of the State of Kansas. He has served on the nominating jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for 2001. Jonathan’s most prestigious awards include the Devins Award (1972), the Associate Writing Programs Award (1983), the Juniper Prize (1985), and the Vassar Miller Prize (1991). He has also received two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships (1974, 1985).
As a teacher, Jonathan has mentored many students to develop their own talents, providing, in his own words, “sensitive and sustained coaching.” In 1986, he received the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award, a formal recognition of what his students have valued for years: his dedication to craft, his intellectual prowess, his professional acumen, and his prodigious knowledge of verse.
During his 35 years at Kansas State, Jonathan contributed widely and significantly to the Department of English, to the College of Arts and Sciences, to the University, and to the profession. Within the department, he served as Director of Creative Writing (1978-82, 1996), as a member of the editorial board for the Kansas Quarterly, and as a long-standing member of the Program in Creative Writing. Of particular note were the resources he secured for visiting writers, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
With gratitude, we recognize Jonathan’s significant contributions to the fields of creative writing and literary criticism and to the mission of Kansas State University.
As noted in the obituary, family, colleagues, and friends will be gathering in the spring in 2025 to celebrate Jonathan’s life. (A live-stream link will be available upon request.)
As also noted in the obituary, “Memorial contributions may be sent to establish the Jonathan Holden Poetry Prize through Kansas State University’s English Department.” If you would like to contribute, please direct those donations to the English Department’s Foundation account (F24275), indicating in the space provided “In memory of Jonathan Holden.” Donations can be made online or by check.
We send our sympathies and support to all of Jonathan’s family, colleagues, and friends, most especially to his spouse, Anita Cortez.
Update (3/5/2025): We will be gathering to celebrate Jonathan’s life on Sunday April 6, 2025, 3:00-4:30pm CT, at the K-State Alumni Center. Please contact english@ksu.edu by April 5 for the live-stream link.
— Karin Westman, Department Head
K-State English 
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