UB Libraries celebrates Robert Creeley’s legacy with ‘Onward!’ centenary exhibition

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo Libraries Poetry Collection is presenting a centenary exhibition celebrating the life and work of Robert Creeley (1926-2005), the former UB faculty member and one of the 20th century’s leading poets.

Onward! A Centennial Celebration of Robert Creeley is open to the public weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through the end of 2026 in the UB Libraries Special Collections, 420 Capen Hall on the university’s North Campus.

Drawing on materials from the Poetry Collection and University Archives, the exhibition commemorates Creeley’s long-standing career in American poetry, his association with the Black Mountain School of poetry, and his influential faculty position at UB, according to James Maynard, PhD, curator of the UB Poetry Collection.

“It’s quite a challenge to represent the achievements and activities of Creeley’s significant and long-standing career,” says Maynard. “But we have tried to highlight different facets of his work by focusing on some of his many ventures.”

In addition to Creeley’s poetry and poetics, Onward! explores his work with Divers Press, a publishing venture he started in the 1950s. There are displays of his work as editor of the “Black Mountain Review,” the literary journal that created the Black Mountain School. Onward! also offers a microcosm of Creeley’s relationship with his lifelong friend Robert Duncan, a fellow Black Mountain poet whose more expansive style contrasted with Creeley’s brevity.

Creeley spent 37 years at UB and served as both David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters and Samuel P. Capen Professor of Poetry and the Humanities. He published more than 60 books of poetry and more than a dozen books of prose and essays.

“One of his greatest accomplishments and one of the strongest parts of his university legacy is the 1991 creation of the Poetics Program at UB, of which he was one of the many founders and the first director,” says Maynard. “It was among the many things he did to enhance Buffalo’s identity as a literary destination and establish UB’s role in the world of poetry.”

The exhibition title comes from Creeley’s practice of using Onward! as a valediction in correspondence.

“He was a prolific letter writer and an early adopter of email,” explains Maynard. “For me, Onward! represents his view of art as being open to the future rather than a repetition of the past.”

Onward! is part of a community-wide effort presenting Creeley programming.

“I’m proud of all the Creeley activities that have been coordinated for his centenary,” says Maynard. “It’s a great moment for his legacy, UB and the entire Western New York community.”