Jay Parini, the D. E. Axinn Professor of English and creative writing at Middlebury College, will deliver the university’s 2025 Baccalaureate address Saturday, May 17, at 4 p.m. in Packer Memorial Church. Baccalaureate is a major university event during commencement weekend.
Reservations are not required.
Parini is a celebrated poet, novelist, screenwriter, biographer and literary critic. His writings include six volumes of poetry and literary biographies of figures such as William Faulkner, Robert Frost and John Steinbeck.
His eight volumes of fiction include, “The Patch Boys,” a novel about growing up in Pennsylvania’s coal mining region, and “Borges and Me: An Encounter,” a “novelized memoir” based on Parini’s road trip as a young man with Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. “Borges and Me” is currently being made into a feature film in the United Kingdom.
The subject matter of Parini’s biographical novels include the life of St. Paul, the marriage of Herman Melville and the escape of Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin from Nazi-occupied France. “Benjamin’s Crossing,” was recognized as a New York Times notable book of the year in 1997.
“The Last Station,” Parini’s novel about Leo Tolstoy’s dying days, has been translated into 30 languages. The big-screen movie based on the novel stars Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren, who earned Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for their roles in the film. The novel itself was celebrated for its “true originality of voice and perception” in a New York Times review.
Rev. Lloyd Steffen, university chaplain and professor of religion, culture and society, said Parini’s “contributions to contemporary literature as a poet, novelist and critic are well-known and widely honored. But he also gleans energy from the classroom and has shared in a wonderful book his reflections on his life as a teacher.”
“He addresses the spiritual and ethical dimension of life, asking big questions about the meaning and mystery of human existence,” Steffen said. “And Professor Parini has urged poets to enter the public arena and offer their insights into the critical issues of our time.”
In 2003, Parini joined a group of poets for “A Poetry Reading in Honor of the Right to Protest as a Patriotic and Historical Tradition,” an event held in Manchester, Vermont, that received national attention.
Led by Steffen, the Baccalaureate program includes choral music and the presentation or “farewell address” to graduating seniors. The original Baccalaureate ceremony dates back to the 14th Century, where it was held at Oxford University.
Students representing different religious traditions participate in the program.
A Pennsylvania native who earned his Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Parini received a Guggenheim Fellowship, was appointed a Fowler Hamilton Fellow at Oxford University and was a fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of London. He has been awarded several book prizes, three honorary degrees and the John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award for his literary achievements. He has written for numerous journals and websites, including CNN, The New York Times and The Guardian, and he has been interviewed as a guest at PBS, NPR, C-SPAN, CBS and BBC among others. Parini lives in Weybridge, Vermont, and is married to child psychologist and writer, Devon Jersild. He is a father to three sons.
