Cole Swensen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cole Swensen (b. 1955— ) in Kentfield near San Francisco, Swensen was awarded a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and is the author of over ten poetry collections and as many translations of works from the French. A translator, editor, copywriter, and teacher, she received her B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State University and a Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz before going on to become the now-Previous Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Denver. Her work is considered Postmodern and post-Language school, though she maintains close ties with many of the original authors from that group (such as Lyn Hejinian, Carla Harryman, Barrett Watten, Charles Bernstein,) as well as poets from all over the US and Europe. In fact, her work is hybrid in nature, sometimes called lyric-Language poetry emerging from a strong background in the poetic and visual art traditions of both the USA and France and adding to them her own vision.

In the USA, Cole Swensen’s ninth collection of poetry, Goest (Alice James Books, 2004) was a finalist for the National Book Award[1]. Earlier works have been awarded a National Poetry Series selection, Sun & Moon’s New American Writing Award, the Iowa Poetry Prize via University of Iowa Press, the San Francisco State Poetry Center Book Award, and two Pushcart Prizes. Her translation of Jean Frémon’s The Island of the Dead won the 2004 PEN USA Literary Award for Translation. She has also received grants from the Association Beaumarchais and the French Bureau du Livre, and is member of the Academy of American Poets. She is Contributing Editor for the periodicals American Letters & Commentary and for Shiny, and for many years was the translation editor for the online contemporary poetry and poetics review How2[2]. She divides her time among Paris, Washington DC and Iowa, where she is on the permanent faculty at Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is also the founder and editor of La Presse, a small press dedicated to the translation and publication in English of contemporary French poetry (such as by Claude Royet-Journoud or Marie Borel).

In France, Swensen has participated in readings and collaborative translation projects with such organizations as the Royaumont Foundation at the beautiful L'abbaye de Royaumont, Columbia University’s Reed Hall, the maison des écrivains et de la littérature[3] in Paris, Double Change[4][5] and Ivy Writers Paris[6]. Her life-long commitment to translation is a testament to her belief in the international exchange of words and language, and in the importance of radical and traditional poetries for contemporary society.

Contents 1 Publications 1.1 Books 1.2 Translations from the French 1.3 Other publications 1.4 Contributions to periodicals 2 External links

[edit] Publications

[edit] Books

• Ours:[7] poems on the gardens of Andre Le Notre (forthcoming from University of California Press in 2008)--excerpt at POOL[8]
• The Glass Age, (Alice James Books [9], 2007) Reviewed at rhubarb is susan [10], [11]
• The Book of a Hundred Hands[12] (University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2005)
• NEF, a translation by Rémi Bouthonnier of Noon (Les Petits Matins, Paris, 2005)
• Goest, (Alice James Books, 2004)[13]--Finalist for the National Book Award, 2004, and One of 12 books honored as the "Best Poetry of 2004" by Library Journal. Reviewed at smartish pace [14]
• Such Rich Hour[15] (University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2001)
• Oh[16] (Apogee Press[17], Berkeley, CA, 2000)--Finalist for the National Poetry Series, 1998.
• And Hand chapbook (a+bend Press series[18], San Francisco, CA, 2000)
• Try[19] (University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa, 1999)--Winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, 1998, and Winner of the San Francisco State Poetry Center Book Award, 2000.
• Noon (Sun & Moon Press, Los Angeles, CA., 1997)--Winner of the New American Writing Award. Re-published with Green Integer[20].
• Numen(Burning Deck Press, [21],Burning Deck Publications, Providence, R.I. 1995)--Named an “International Book of the Year,” Times Literary Supplement, and Finalist for the PEN West Award in Poetry, 1996. It also appeared in French translation as Numen, (Fondation Royaumont, 1994)
• Parc, a translation by Pierre Alferi of Park (Format Américan [22], France, 1995)
• Park (Floating Island Press, Inverness, CA. 1991)
• New Math (William Morrow & Co., New York, 1988)--Winner of the National Poetry Series, 1987
• It's Alive She Says, (Floating Island Press, CA, 1984)

[edit] Translations from the French

• Physis by Nicolas Pesquès (Parlor Press / Free Verse Editions[23], 2007)
• Futur, ancien, fugitif[24] by Olivier Cadiot, as Future, Former, Fugitive(Roof Books, 2004)
• Kub or by Pierre Alferi[25], asOxo (Burning Deck, 2004).
• Ile des Morts by Jean Frémon, as: Island of the Dead (Green Integer, 2002)--awarded the 2004 PEN USA Award for Literary Translation[26]
• Bayart by Pascalle Monnier (Black Square Editions, 2001)
• Natural Gaits by Pierre Alferi (Sun & Moon, 1995).
• Past Travels by Olivier Cadiot (1994)
• Interrmittances II by Jean Tortel(1994)

[edit] Other publications

• Swensen has written critical articles on poets such as Susan Howe, Anne-Marie Albiach or Claude Royet-Journoud, as well as reviews of poetry for such periodicals and books as:
• “The Boston Review”
• “The Bloomsbury Review”
• anthologies Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing By Women edited by Mary Margaret Sloan, (Talisman Editions, New Jersey, 1998) and
• Civil Disobediences (Coffee House Press, 2004)

Swensen is currently co-editing with David St John the anthology American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry including 70 poets seen as creating cross-genre works, mixing tranditional or modernist poetry techniques with experimental and postmodern writings (W.W. Norton & Company, 2008)

[edit] Contributions to periodicals

• Contributor to periodicals in English: including Chicago Review, American Poetry Review, Boston Book Review, Common Knowledge, Conjunctions, Upstairs at Duroc, Grand Street(magazine), New American Writing, and ZYZZYVA [27]. She has also translated individual poems for print and online periodicals such as Verse, The Germ, 1913 or online at [www.chicagopostmodernpoetry.com] site including works by Caroline Dubois[28]or Sabine Macher[29], and Oulipo Poet Michel Gringaud on drunkenboat[30] or at Free Verse [31].
• Individual poems by Swensen have appeared in French translation: in the reviews “Action Poétique,” "Java," "Vacarme," "Nioque," "Action Poétique," and “Hors-Bords.”

[edit] External links

• Swensen Poets.org page at[32]
• Read a short interview with Swensen at: [33]
• Interviewed by Jennifer K Dick in online video format at The Continental Review at[34]

This American poet-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.