Vermont writer and teacher T. Alan Broughton passed away in the early hours of Friday, May 17, at Vermont Respite House. He will be remembered by generations of University of Vermont students — Broughton began teaching English there in 1966 — and by readers of his novels (four), short stories (two collections) and powerful poems (nine collections).
The last of those poetry collections was A World Remembered (2010). It’s a searingly eloquent work that deals from many angles with the prospect and fear of death. “The terror of obliteration threads its way through this work devoted to preserving something from that fate,” I wrote in my review. “Though the author declares himself a nonbeliever in any afterlife, his words often take on the tone and force of prayer…”
In 2003, Peter Kurth reviewed Broughton’s short-story collection Suicidal Tendencies for Seven Days. He quotes Broughton as saying that “every time he sits down to write he still feels ‘baffled and anxious. …I only wonder how I got away with it.'” But he assuredly does “get away with it,” Kurth continues.
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