The University of Wyoming is hosting a celebration of life today for former professor and poet Craig Arnold from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Centennial Complex Lobby. Arnold passed away last spring while researching volcanoes for a new book he was writing.

“It is going to be an event that will celebrate and honor Craig, for the work he did here, for the person he was. A chance for the community here to get together and to say good-bye,” Peter Parolin, head of the English department, said. “It will be hard, but it is appropriate to have an occasion that will mark the passing of a very dynamic faculty member we had the privilege of working with.”

Arnold was in Japan at the time of his death as part of the U.S.–Japan Friendship Commission’s Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship.

Arnold was an accomplished poet who won many awards. He was the author of two poetry books, “Shells,” published in 1999, and “Made Flesh,” published in 2008.

“He [Arnold] had traveled all over the world, to not only read his work, but to give presentations on poetry,” Parolin said.

The book “Shells” brought Arnold much credibility as it won him the prestigious Yale Series of Public Poets. Arnold’s poems and reviews are also featured in three volumes of “Best American Poetry” and widely elsewhere.

Among his awards and honors are the Rome Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship and the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton.

“Made Flesh” was also a finalist for the New Criterion Prize and the Pitt Poetry Series.

“His poems are complex in lots of ways, but you get it, it is not obscure. It is very passionate and sensual,” Alyson Hagy, an English Department professor, said. “He was a great poet, a great writer, great lecturer and great organizer of events.”

Arnold graduated from Yale in 1990 with a B.A. in English, and received his doctorate in Creative Writing from the University of Utah in 2001.

Arnold had been teaching at UW for the last five years. He taught within the creative writing program and the Honor’s Program for the freshman English class.

“For me, stepping into Dr. Arnold’s classroom was like stepping into another realm. I honestly had never encountered a teacher like Dr. Arnold, and I’m not sure I will again, but I do know that in 16 weeks, those of us in that ‘realm’ were transformed from scared freshmen into confident students, with a little bit of added flair,” Caitlin Wallace, a student of Arnold’s, said.

Arnold also taught a class he created on literature and food, which was widely sought by students.

“Anybody who went to see Craig recite his poems knows he is a performance artist and that is true of his teaching, too. He really cared about and believed in his teaching, and that really sort of made all the difference,” Duncan Harris, head of the Honors Program, said. “He was fascinating to watch, and underneath the games and the play, he was deadly serious about what he was teaching, and that sincerity, that commitment, transferred itself to the students, who I think really appreciated him.”

Craig Arnold is survived by his 15-year-old son; long time girlfriend, Rebecca Lindenberg; and his brother, Chris Arnold, who was very influential in the search for Arnold after he was reported missing.

“He is a dynamic teacher, and a dynamic figure in the poetry community, in Laramie and nationally,” Parolin said. “When he got here he started local poetry slams that got students at the university, the high school and local people involved, standing up and reading their poetry. He was a dynamic and multitalented person.”

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