Penny's poetry pages Wiki
in: Articles using Wikipedia text, Articles with authority control information, Imported, created, or updated in 2015,
and 20 more

Cole Swensen

Edit
Medium swenson bw

Cole Swensen. Courtesy Creative Capital.

Cole Swensen (born 1955) is an American poet, translator, editor, and academic. She is the author of more than 10 poetry collections and as many translations of works from the French.

Life[]

Swensen was born in Kentfield, California.

She earned a B.A. and an M.A. from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz

She worked as director of the creative writing program at the University of Denver. She then taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa until 2012 when she joined the faculty of Brown University's Literary Arts Program.

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 [1] in Paris, Double Change, [2] and Ivy Writers Paris.[3] 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.

She is member of the Academy of American Poets, and a 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.[4]

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)
  • American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, (W.W. Norton & Company, 2008). Swensen co-edited (with David St. John) this anthology that includes 70 poets seen as creating cross-genre works, mixing traditional or modernist poetry techniques with experimental and postmodern writings

She is a regular contributor to periodicals in English: including Chicago Review, American Poetry Review, Boston Book Review, Common Knowledge, Conjunctions, Upstairs at Duroc, Grand Street, New American Writing, and ZYZZYVA.[5] She has also translated individual poems for print and online periodicals such as Verse, The Germ, 1913. Online at the extensive Chicago Modern Poetry website,[6] one can discover other poets Swensen has translated including Caroline Dubois [7] or Sabine Macher,[8] and Oulipo poet Michel Gringaud at the drunkenboat publication website [9] or at Free Verse.[10]

  • Individual poems by Swensen have appeared in French translation: in the reviews “Action Poétique,” "Java," "Vacarme," "Nioque," "Action Poétique," and “Hors-Bords.”


She divides her time between Paris, Washington DC and Providence, where she is on the permanent faculty of Brown University's literary arts program. 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).

Writing[]

Swenson's 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. 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.

Recognition[]

Swensen was awarded a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship. She has also received grants from the Association Beaumarchais and the French Bureau du Livre.

Her translation of Jean Frémon’s The Island of the Dead won the 2004 PEN USA Literary Award for Translation.

Swensen’s 9th collection of poetry, Goest (2004) was a finalist for the National Book Award.[11] 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.

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • It's Like You Never Left: Poems. San Francisco: Isis Press, 1983.
  • It's Alive She Says. Point Reyes Station, CA: Floating Island Press, CA, 1984.
  • Given. San Francisco: E.G., 1986.
  • New Math. New York: William Morrow, 1988.
  • Park. Point Reyes Station, CA: Floating Island Publications, 1991.
  • Walk. Buffalo, NY: Leave Books, 1994.
  • Numen. Providence, RI: Burning Deck Press, 1995.
  • Noon. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1997.
  • Try. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 1999.
  • Pacco Ucello Examines the Sky. Baltimore, MF: Dolphin Press, 1999.
  • Oh. Berkeley, CA: Apogee Press, 2000.
  • And Hand. San Francisco: A+bend, 2000.
  • Such Rich Hour. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2001.
  • Goest. Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2004.
  • Paradise. Oakland, CA: Eucalyptus Press, 2004.
  • The Garden as the History of a Queen. Iowa City, IA: Empyrean Press, 2004.
  • The Book of a Hundred Hands: Poems. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2005.
  • Ghosts Are Hope. St. Louis, MO: Observable Press, 2006.
  • The Glass Age. Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2007.
  • Ours: Poems on the gardens of Andre Le Notre.Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008.
  • Greensward. Brooklyn, NY: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010.
  • Stele. Sausalito, CA: Post-Apollo Press, 2012.
  • On Walks. Brooklyn, NY: Belladonna, 2013.
  • Gravesend. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012.

Non-fiction[]

Translated[]

  • Olivier Cadiot, Past Travels. Cambridge, UK: Ankle Press, 1994.
  • Jean Tortel, Interrmittances II. Cambridge, UK: Ankle Press, 1994.
  • Pierre Alferi, Natural Gaits. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon, 1995.
  • Oliver Cadiot, Art Poetic. Copenhagen & Los Angeles: Green Integer, 1999.
  • Pascale Monnier, Bayart. New York: Black Square Editions, 2002.
  • Olivier Cadiot, Future, Former, Fugitive. New York: Roof Books, 2003.
  • Jean Frèmon, Island of the Dead. Copenhagen & Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2003.
  • Jean Frèmon, Distant Noise. Penngrove, CA: Avion, 2003.
  • Pierre Alferi, Oxo (Kub or). Providence, RI: Burning Deck, 2004.
  • Olivier Cadiot, Colonel Zoo. Copenhagen & Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2006.
  • Nicolas Pesquès, Physis. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2007.[12]
  • Nicolas Pesquès, Juliology. Denver, CO: Counterpath, 2008.
  • Jean Frèmon, The Real Life of Shadows. Sausalito, CA: Post-Apollo Press, 2009.
  • Jean Frèmon, The Posthumous Life of RW. Richmond, CA: Omnidawn, 2014.

Edited[]

  • American Hybrid: A Norton anthology of new poetry (edited with David St. John). New York: Norton, 2009.
  • Best American Experimental Writing (edited with Seth Abramson & Jesse Damiani). Richmond, CA: Omnidawn, 2014.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.[13]

Audio / video[]

On_the_Fly_Cole_Swensen

On the Fly Cole Swensen

  • Poetry Reading, April 14, 2005 (cassette). Buffalo, NY: Poetry Collection, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2005.
  • The Poet's Voice: Cole Swensen and Juliana Spahr (CD). Woodberry Poetry Room (Harvard College Library), Houghton Library, 2012.
  • Cole Swensen NWS Reading (MP3). La Jolla, CA: University of California, San Diego, Dept. of Literature, 2012.

Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat.[14]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ↑ http://www.maison-des-ecrivains.asso.fr/
  2. ↑ http://www.doublechange.com/
  3. ↑ http://www.ivywritersparis.blogspot.com/
  4. ↑ http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/
  5. ↑ http://www.zyzzyva.org/
  6. ↑ www.chicagopostmodernpoetry.com
  7. ↑ http://www.chicagopostmodernpoetry.com/caroldubois.html
  8. ↑ http://www.chicagopostmodernpoetry.com/sabmacher.html
  9. ↑ http://www.drunkenboat.com/db8/oulipo/feature-oulipo/oulipo/texts/grangaud/calend_en.html
  10. ↑ http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/freeverse/Archives/Spring_2003/poems/C_Swensen.html
  11. ↑ http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2004_cswensen.htm
  12. ↑ http://www.parlorpress.com/freeverse/
  13. ↑ Cole Swensen b. 1955, Poetry Foundation, Web, Dec. 9, 2012.
  14. ↑ Search results = au:Cole Swensen + audiobook, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Dec. 3, 2015.

External links[]

Poems
Audio / video
About
This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia. (view article). (view authors).
Authority control
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.