Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan in 2014. Photo by Slowking. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Linda Pastan (born May 27, 1932) is an American poet of Jewish background. She is known for writing short poems that address topics like family life, domesticity, motherhood, the female experience, aging, death, loss and the fear of loss, as well as the fragility of life and relationships.

Life

Pastan was born in New York City. She has published at least 12 books of poetry and a number of essays.

As of 2011, she lived in Potomac, Maryland with her husband Ira Pastan, an accomplished physician and researcher.

She is the mother of novelist Rachel Pastan

Recognition

Poet Laureate of Maryland Linda Pastan

Pastan's awards include the Dylan Thomas Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award (Poetry Society of America), the Bess Hokin Prize (Poetry Magazine), the 1986 Maurice English Poetry Award (for A Fraction of Darkness), the Charity Randall Citation of the International Poetry Forum, and the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. She also received the Radcliffe College Distinguished Alumnae Award.

2 of her collections of poems were nominated for the National Book Award, and 1 for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

From 1991 to 1995 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland.

Publications

Poetry

• A Perfect Circle of Sun. Chicago: Swallow Press, 1971.
• On the Way to the Zoo. Washington, DC: Dryad Press, 1975.
• Aspects of Eve. New York: Liveright, 1975.
• The Five Stages of Grief. New York: Norton, 1978.
• Selected Poems. London: Murray, 1979.
• Setting the Table. Washington, DC: Dryad Press, 1980.
• Waiting for My Life. New York: Norton, 1981.
• PM/AM: New and selected poems. New York: Norton, 1982.
• A Fraction of Darkness. New York: Norton, 1985.
• The Imperfect Paradise. New York: Norton, 1988.
• Heroes in Disguise. New York: Norton, 1991.
• An Early Afterlife. New York: Norton, 1995.
• Carnival Evening: New and selected poems 1968–1998. New York: Norton, 1998.
• The Last Uncle: Poems. New York: Norton, 2002.
• Queen of a Rainy Country: Poems. New York: Norton, 2006.
• Traveling Light. New York: Norton, 2011.

Linda Pastan Reads "Why Are Your Poems So Dark?"

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

Audio / video

Linda Pastan Reading in the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival Saturday Night Sampler - 9 27 08

• Linda Pastan (cassette). Kansas City, MO: University of Missouri, 1982.
• Mosaic (cassette). Washington, DC: Watershed Intermedia, 1987.
• Fifty Poems: A personal selection. Pittsburgh, PA: International Poetry Forum, 1988.
• Linda Pastan II (cassette). Kansas City, MO: University of Missouri, 1997.

Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

Preceded by Reed Whittemore

Poet Laureate of Maryland 1991-1995

Succeeded by Roland Flint

References

Linda Pastan reading three poems at the 2006 Dodge Poetry Festival

• Franklin, Benjamin. 1981. "Theme and Structure in Linda Pastan's Poetry". In: Poet Lore. 75 (4). 234 – 241.
• Mishkin, Tracy. 2004 "Aspects of Eve: The Garden of Eden in the Poetry of Linda Pastan". In: Behlau, Ulrike (ed.), Reitz, Bernhard (ed.). Jewish Women's Writing of the 1990s and Beyond. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag. 95 – 103.
• "Whatever is at Hand. A conversation with Linda Pastan". 1989. In: Ingersoll, Earl (ed.), Kitchen, Judith (ed.), Rubin, Stan (ed.). The Post-Confessionals: Conversations with American Poets of the Eighties. New York: Associated University Press. 135 – 149.

External links

Poems

• "Meditation by the Stove" at alittlepoetry.com
• "The Obligation to Be Happy"
• Linda Pastan b. 1932 at the Poetry Foundation
• Linda Pastan at Poetry 180: "To a Daughter Leaving Home," "A New Poet," "Leaving the Island"
• Linda Pastan profile & 5 poems at the Academy of American Poets
• Linda Pastan at PoemHunter (23 poems)

Audio / video

• Linda Pastan reads "Why are your poems so dark?" from the book Queen of a Rainy Country
• Linda Pastan at YouTube

Pastan". In: The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. (7 July 2003).

• Poetry Reading by Linda Pastan at the 10th Beall Poetry Festival, Baylor University, Waco, Texas (2 April 2004).
• Beall Poetry Festival: Panel including Denis Donoghue, Galway Kinnell and Linda Pastan, Baylor University, Waco, Texas (3 April 2004).
• Poetry Reading by Linda Pastan at the National Book Festival 2004, Washington D.C. (October 2004).
• Interview with Linda Pastan (audio) 2007

Books

• Linda Pastan at Amazon.com