Connellan, Leo (1928 - 2001)

Genre: Poetry

Leo Connellan was born near Portland and grew up in Rockland. He attended the University of Maine for three years prior to joining the Army, then on to Greenwich Village in the 1950's to be a part of the Beat Generation. His poetry concerns itself with the human condition, and was also highly influenced by his early proximity to the fishing and lobstering industry in Maine.

Following his stint in New York, he and wife Nancy moved to Clinton, Connecticut, where he worked as a typewriter ribbon salesman for many years and continued to write poetry. When he won the Shelley Memorial Award for Poetry in 1983, he gained enough recognition that he was able to work as a teacher.

He worked as poet-in-residence at Connecticut State University from 1988 to 2001, and was named Connecticut Poet Laureate from 1996 on. Mr. Connellan received an honorary doctorate from the University of Maine at Augusta in 1998.

Selected Bibliography

  • Maine Poems, (1999)
  • Short Poems, City Poems, 1944-1998, (1998)
  • Provincetown, and Other Poems, (1995)
  • New and Collected Poems, (1989)
  • The Clear Blue Lobster-Water Country: a Trilogy, (1985)
  • Shatterhouse, (1983)
  • First Selected Poems, (1976)
  • Crossing America, (1976)

Selected Resources