Ruth Fainlight



Ruth Fainlight (born 2 May 1931), is an English poet, short story writer, translator and librettist.

Life
Fainlight was born in New York City, but has mainly lived in England since she was 15, having also spent some years living in France and Spain. She studied for two years at the Birmingham and Brighton Colleges of Arts and Crafts. In addition to her own works, Fainlight has also provided criticism for BBC Radio, Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and numerous other publications.

She has twice been Poet in Residence at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

She was married to the British writer Alan Sillitoe (1928–2010) and has a son, David, who is a photographer for The Guardian and an adopted daughter, Susan. She lives in London.

She was a close friend of Sylvia Plath's in the years leading up to Plath's death.

Poetry collections

 * Cages. 1966.
 * To See the Matter Clearly 1968 from Macmillan UK; Dufour Editions, US
 * The Region's Violence. 1973.
 * Another Full Moon. 1976.
 * Sibyls and Others. 1980. New edition, Poetry Book Society, 2007
 * Fifteen to Infinity. 1983. Also published 1987, Carnegie-Mellon University Press US
 * Selected Poems. 1987.
 * The Knot 1990. from Hutchinson or CenturyHutchinson, UK
 * Climates. Bloodaxe Books UK, 1983.
 * This Time of Year. 1994.
 * Selected Poems. Updated new edition, Sinclair-Stevenson UK, 1995.
 * Sugar-Paper Blue. Bloodaxe Books UK, Dufour Editions US, 1997.
 * Shortlisted for 1998 Whitbread Poetry Prize
 * Burning Wire. Bloodaxe Books UK, Dufour Editions US, 2002.
 * Moon Wheels. Bloodaxe Books, 2006. Dufour Editions US, 2007
 * New and Collected Poems.Bloodaxe Books, 25th Nov 2010

Books

 * Sibyls. Gehenna Press US, 1991, with woodcuts by Leonard Baskin.
 * Pomegranate. Editions de l`Eau, Ceret, France, 1997, mezzotints by Judith Rothchild
 * Leaves/Feuilles, Editions Verdigris, Octon, France, 1998. Bi-lingual, French/English, tr. M. Duclos; mezzotints by Judith Rothchild
 * Feathers, Editions Verdigris, France, 2002. Mezzotints by Judith Rothchild
 * Sheba and Solomon. Pratt Contemporary Art, UK, 2004. Drypoints by Ana Maria Pacheco

Short story collections

 * Daylife and Nightlife. Andre Deutsch UK, 1971.
 * Dr. Clock's Last Case. Virago Books UK, 1994.

Translations

 * Lope de Vega, All Citizens Are Soldiers. Macmillan UK, 1966. Tr. from Spanish (original title: Fuenteovejuna) with Alan Sillitoe
 * Navigations 1983, Casa da Moeda, Portugal and Marine Rose 1987, Black Swan US, poems, from Portuguese of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
 * Selection of poems by Jean Joubert, from French, included in Selected Poems, 1995
 * Sophocles, The Theban Trilogy 2009. Translated with Robert Littman, Johns Hopkins University Press, US

Poetry collections in translation
tr. M. Rosenberg & D. Samoilovich, Cosmopoetica, Cordoba, Spain
 * La Verità sulla Sibilla 2003, tr. from Italian. Alessandra Schiavinato and Paolo Ruffilli, published by Edizioni del Leone, Venice, Italy
 * Visitação 1995, edited by Ana Hatherly, Quetzal Editores, Lisbon, Portugal
 * Encore la Pleine Lune 1997, tr. M.Duclos & J.Joubert, Editions Federop, Eglise-Neuve d'Issac, France
 * Leaves/Feuilles 1998, tr. M.Duclos, Editions Verdigris, Octon, France
 * Bleu Papier-Sucre 2000, tr. M.Duclos, Les Amis de la Poésie, Bergerac, France
 * Plumas (Feathers) (in English and Spanish) published by Editorial 'El Tucan de  Virginia', Mexico City, Mexico, 2005.
 * Poemas 2000, tr. B.Varela, L.Graves, M.Negroni, J.Capriata, M.Lauer Editorial  Pequeña Venecia, Caracas, Venezuela
 * 'Autorul La Rampa' 2007, tr. Lidia Vianu, Univers Enciclopedic, Bucharest, Romania
 * `La Nueva Ciencia de los Materiales Fuertes`(bi-lingual, English/Spanish) 2009,

Poems in translation
The poem "Sugar-Paper Blue" was translated into Russian by Marina Boroditskaya and is published in the April 2003 issue of the Moscow monthly Inostrannaya Literatura (Foreign Literature).

The poem sequence "Sheba and Solomon" has been translated into Russian by Marina Boroditskaya and published in Moscow in the literary magazine Novaya Younost in 2003.

Libretti

 * "The Dancer Hotoke" 1991, composer Erika Fox (nominated for the 1992 Laurence Olivier Awards)
 * The European Story 1993, chamber opera, composer Geoffrey Alvarez (Based on poem of the same name). Both works above were commissioned by the Royal Opera House for their 'Garden Venture' program in 1991 and 1993)
 * Bedlam Britannica September 1995.

Awards and honours

 * Cholmondeley Award for Poetry, 1994
 * Hawthornden Fellowship, 1987
 * Fellow of Royal Society of Literature, 2007