John Ignatius Knoepfle is a professor emeritus of literature from Sangamon State University (UIS), poet, author of prose, oral historian, translator, and specialist in Midwestern literature and folklore. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 4, 1923, and served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during WWII, participating in the amphibious assaults upon the Japanese-held islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Knoepfle was wounded in battle requiring a long recovery period during which he began pursuing a university education. He earned a Ph.B. (1947) and an M.A. (1949) from Xavier University, and subsequently, a Ph.D. in Medieval and Renaissance English literature from Saint Louis University (1967). While working for a Cincinnati television station in the 1950s Knoepfle interviewed rivermen of the Ohio River, eventually conducting over forty-two oral histories about life on the river. He taught English literature and creative writing at Ohio State University (1956-1957), Southern Illinois University, East St. Louis campus (1957-1961), Maryville College (1961-1965), Saint Louis University (1966-1972), and Washington University (1966-1972). Knoepfle ended his career at SSU, where he taught from 1972 to 1991. His scholarship has bridged several languages including translations of Hungarian poetry, the Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo, in collaboration with Wang Shouyi, T'ang and Song Dynasty poetry, and the long-form poetry of the Miami-Peoria people. He has also published fifteen books and chapbooks of poetry including Rivers into Islands (1965) and poems from the sangamon (1985). In 1989 Knoepfle published a series of folktales set in the Midwest titled Dim Tales. In 1986 Knoepfle won the Mark Twain Award for distinguished contributions from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature and the same year he was designated Illinois author of the year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English.

Note written by