Benjamin Saltman

Benjamin Saltman (September 7, 1927 – January 9, 1999) was an American poet and Professor of verse writing and contemporary American literature at California State University, Northridge. The Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award is given annually by Red Hen Press in his honor.

Saltman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the youngest son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. He earned his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1952 and his M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University in 1959. In 1967 He received his Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate School where he wrote his doctoral thesis "The Descent to God: Religious Language in Several Contemporary American Poets". He was married to Helen Saltman, and had three children. Miriam, Lara, and Marjorie Saltman. His kids then went on to have his grandchildren: Noa and Oren Figenblat, Lia and Sivan Gabai, and Ben Kfir.

Benjamin Saltman was the recipient of two NEA Literature Fellowships in 1969 and 1987.

He was noted as providing editorial assistance for the Swami Prabhavananda in the "The Sermon on the Mount according to Vedanta". In 1992, after retiring, he volunteered to teach at CSUN for free after state budget cuts caused the school to cancel 1,000 courses previously scheduled for the fall semester.