Randall, Julia, 1923-2005

Julia Randall was born June 15, 1923 in Baltimore, Maryland. She received a B.A. in English from Bennington College in 1945 and afterwards studied at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She eventually changed her studies to English and graduated with an M.A. in 1950. In 1952, she married Kenneth Sawyer, a poet and art critic who wrote for the Paris Tribune and the Baltimore Sun; they divorced in 1962. Randall taught at Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland (Paris branch), Peabody Conservatory, and Towson State Teachers College. In 1962 she became an associate professor of English at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia for eleven years before retiring from teaching to write full time. Randall was the only female member of the English department and taught numerous students who later became well- known authors, including Annie Dillard and Lee Smith. Randall published eight collections of poetry and wrote literary reviews for the Baltimore Evening Sun and the Hollins Critic. In 1987 she received the Poets Prize for Moving in Memory, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in 1966 and 1982, and the American Poetry Society Percy Bysshe Shelley Award in 1980. A former Bennington College faculty member noted that "her wit and passion, the verbal beauty and formal balance of each poem combined to make a distinctive voice which asked the read to enjoy her singing and at the same time to think." After her retirement in 1973, she moved to Baltimore, Maryland and became involved with environmental activism, especially pertaining to the Long Green Valley in Baltimore County. In 1987, she moved to North Bennington, Vermont. She died on May 22, 2005 at the age of 81.

From the description of Julia Randall papers, 1930-2001. 1930-2001. (Hollins University). WorldCat record id: 206199652