Celebrated Poet, Author Named 2026 Stellfox Scholar
Molly Peacock
Residency includes public reading on Feb. 19
Photo credit: Candice Ferreira.
Molly Peacock’s works sing the music of everyday life in evocative ways. Whether you know her as a critically acclaimed and widely anthologized poet; an award-winning biographer; a writer of essays, memoir and short fiction; or as a noted “poetry activist,” you won’t want to miss her public reading on Feb. 19.
The Harold & Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars & Writers Program presents Molly Peacock as Dickinson’s 2026 Stellfox scholar. As this year's recipient of the prestigious Stellfox Award, Peacock will complete a short residency on campus Feb. 18-20 that will include a public presentation on Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. in Allison Great Hall. This event is free and open to the public.
In a review in the Washington Post Book World, David Lehman observed, “Peacock has a luxuriantly sensual imagination—and an equally sensual feel for the language. In mood her poems range from high-spirited whimsy ... to bemused reflection. ... Whatever the subject, rich music follows the tap of her baton.” The New York Times Book Review called her biography, Paper Garden, a “graceful meditation on botany, nature, life and age ... Delaney's story abounds with energy as Peacock brings her alive. Like her glorious multilayered collages, Delany is so vivid a character she almost jumps from the page."
Peacock is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada. Following her move to Toronto, she established the Best Canadian Poetry series. In addition to her work as an author and editor, Peacock is also a poetry activist. As president of the Poetry Society of America, she was cofounder of the highly successful (and often imitated) Poetry in Motion project, which made poetry a permanent addition to public transit in New York City.
During her public reading, Peacock will receive the 2026 Stellfox Award. It honors Jean Louise Stellfox ’60, whose interaction with visiting writer Robert Frost during her junior year inspired her to become an English teacher. After 30 years of teaching high school literature in Pennsylvania, Stellfox bequeathed a $1.5 million gift to Dickinson to establish the program, named for her parents.
Past Stellfox Award recipients include U.S. Poets Laureate Ada Limon and Natasha Trethewey; Booker Prize-winning authors Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan; Maria Vargas Llosa, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature; Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Rita Dove, Paul Muldoon and Maxine Kumin; Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Paula Vogel and John Patrick Shanley; and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nick Hornby,
Learn more about the Stellfox Award.
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Published February 5, 2026