American critic and poet

James Longenbach (Sept. 17, 1959 – July 29, 2022) was an American critic and poet. His early critical work focused on modernist poetry, namely that of Ezra Pound, W.B. Yeats, and Wallace Stevens, but came to include contemporary poetry as well. Longenbach published six books of poems: Threshold (1998), Fleet River (2003), Draft of a Letter (2007), the iron key (2012), earthling (2017), and forever (2021). His book of criticism, The Resistance to Poetry, has been described as a "compact and exponentially provocative book."

Longenbach was Joseph Henry Gilmore Professor of English at the University of Rochester and taught at the University from 1985 until his death in 2022. His poems also appeared in many magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, and The Yale Review, as well as The Best American Poetry 1995 anthology. Longenbach frequently reviewed books for Boston Review, The Nation, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Longenbach received his bachelor's degree in 1981 from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and subsequently received his Ph.D. from Princeton University. His wife, novelist Joanna Scott (and fellow Trinity graduate), teaches at the English Department of the University of Rochester. They have two children.

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