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Sam Hamill

1943 – 2018

American poet

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About Sam Hamill

Lived 1943 – 2018 (aged 74). Sam Hamill was an American poet and peace activist.

Sam Hamill (May 9, 1943 – April 14, 2018) was an American poet and the co-founder of Copper Canyon Press along with Bill O’Daly and Tree Swenson. He also initiated the Poets Against War movement in response to the Iraq War. In 2003 he did a poetic tour in Italy, organised by writer Alessandro Agostinelli. After that tour Hamill published his first Italian book A Pisan Canto - Un canto pisano.

Hamill was awarded the Stanley Lindberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Editing and the Washington Poets Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hamill's 2014 book Habitation: Collected Poems, presents some of Hamill's best poems spanning a career of over 40 years.

At the time of his death from complications of COPD in 2018, his final poetry collection After Morning Rain was about to be published.

Poetry Books Gratitude: Poems [BOA Editions, Ltd. Rochester NY, 1988] Facing Snow: Visions of Tu Fu [White Pine Press, 1988] (Sam Hamill, translator) Crossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred T'ang Poems [Tiger Bark Press, 2013] (Sam Hamill, translator) Destination Zero: Poems 1970–1995 (1995). The Gift of Tongues: Twenty-Five Years of Poetry from Copper Canyon Press (1996, Copper Canyon Press)(Sam Hamill, editor) Almost Paradise: New and Selected Poems and Translations (2005). Measured by Stone (2007). A Pisan Canto - Un canto pisano (2008, Edizioni ETS, Italy) Habitation: Collected Poems (2014, University of Washington Press) After Morning Rain (2018, Tiger Bark Press)

In Anthology Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (2018, University of Georgia Press) Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry from the Other U.S.A. (2008, Smokestack Books)

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Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Employers
Copper Canyon Press
Awards
PEN Oakland/Censorship Award; Guggenheim Fellowship; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship

People in Sam Hamill's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Sam Hamill's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Sam Hamill?

American poet

When was Sam Hamill born?

Sam Hamill was born on 9 May 1943 in Utah.

When did Sam Hamill die?

Sam Hamill died on 14 April 2018 in Anacortes.

What was Sam Hamill's occupation?

Sam Hamill was a poet and peace activist.

What nationality was Sam Hamill?

Sam Hamill was American.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Sam Hamill

· Wikidata: Q7407563

· DBpedia: Sam Hamill

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Sam Hamill. https://biography.guide/sam-hamill/

MLA: "Sam Hamill." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/sam-hamill/.

Chicago: "Sam Hamill." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/sam-hamill/.

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