Emeritus and Retired Faculty and Staff Association

George Keithley

Faculty

Department of English
1962-1997

Nationally renowned and widely published poet and author whose works have been made by others into stage plays and opera.

His book, "The Donner Party," appeared in the national section for the Book of the Month Club and later was made into an opera which had its premiere at Chico State.

The Poet Society of America selected his poem, "Song in a Strange Land," for an award. Many of his pieces have been given prestigious awards by publishers and associations.

In the American Poetry Review critics wrote that he "seemed to possess Whitman's visionary imagination." Another said his book on Galileo's life, "Starry Messenger," provided one of the most personal portraits of the astronomer ever written.

In his haunting elegy for John F. Kennedy, "After His Assassination, A Place of Peace," he invokes the land itself and Chico as healing forces.

Portrait of George Keithley