It?s like professors plan these things. I have reached the point in processing the Michael Gizzi papers where I can start to construct the finding aid components, specifically the biographical note and the scope and content note. It just so happens that this week in LIS 438 we have an exercise in writing finding aids due on a collection that we have been looking at and working with for over a month! Lucky me, right? After completing the finding aid exercise for class, I went confidently into my Thursday meeting with my supervisor and told him that I would begin working on the biographical note outside of my internship time. Of course now I feel like I might have been a little too ambitious. However, the general research I have done and what I know about Michael Gizzi from the materials I?ve handled has me situated to take this step and write the biographical note.

I?ve mentioned the man responsible for the manuscript collection for the past few posts but I?ve never explained who the man behind the papers is and why he matters. So who is Michael Gizzi?

I don?t want to give too much away because then you all won?t read my incredible finding aid upon its completion. I will tell you that he was born in Schenectady, New York in 1949 and died in Providence, Rhode Island in 2010. He was a quintessentially eclectic American poet of the twentieth century with intimate connections to other interesting characters on the poetry scene (I?ll name drop John Ashbery to perhaps peak some poetry buff?s curiosity). He did more than write poetry; in his lifetime he worked as an arborist (definitely had to look that up) and was also a teacher on the high school and collegiate levels. He opened his own publishing company and worked with international poets. He worked right up to his passing in September of 2010. The last work reflected in our materials is writing lyrics for a song or score, which is pretty cool. Stay tuned for scope and content developments down the road!