Marie Ponsot

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Marie Ponsot. Photo by Jean Gallagher. Courtesy Brooklyn Rail.

Marie Ponsot (born April 6, 1921) is an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator.

Life

Ponsot was born Marie Birmingham in Brooklyn, New York City; along with her brother, she grew up in Jamaica, Queens. She was already writing poems as a child, some of which were published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

After graduating from St. Joseph's College for Women in Brooklyn, Ponsot earned her master's degree in 17th-century literature from Columbia University. After World War II, she journeyed to Paris, where she met and married Claude Ponsot, a painter and student of Fernand Léger. The couple lived in Paris for 3 years, during which time they had a daughter. Later, Ponsot and her husband relocated to the United States. The couple had 6 sons before divorcing.

Upon returning from France, Ponsot worked as a freelance writer of radio and television scripts. She also translated 69 children's books from the French, including The Fables of La Fontaine.

She co-authored with Rosemary Deen 2 books about the fundamentals of writing, Beat Not the Poor Desk and Common Sense.

Ponsot taught a poetry thesis class, as well as writing classes, at the Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y. She has also taught at the YMCA, Beijing United University, New York University, and Columbia University, and she served as an English professor at Queens College in New York, from which she retired in 1991.

Ponsot lives in New York City.

Recognition

The Bird Catcher (1998) was a finalist for the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Springing: New and Selected Poems (2002) was named a "notable book of the year" by the New York Times Book Review.

Among her awards are a creative writing grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Prize, The Robert Frost Poetry Award, and the Shaughnessy Medal of the Modern Language Association.

Publications

Poetry

• True Minds. San Francisco, CA: City Lights, 1956.
• Life and Letters in Gay Paree. New Haven, CT: Penny Poems, 1959.
• For Elizabeth, to forbid grief. New Haven, CT: Penny Poems, 1959.
• Admit Impediment: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1981.
• The Green Dark: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1988.
• The Bird Catcher: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1998.
• Springing: New and selected poems. New York: Knopf, 2002.
• Easy: Poems. New York: Knopf, 2009.

Non-fiction

• Beat Not the Poor Desk: Writing: What to teach, when to teach it, and why (with Rosemary Deen). Montclair, NJ : Boynton/Cook, 1982.
• Rosemary Deen, Marie Ponsot (1985). The Common Sense: What to write, how to write it, and why. Boynton/Cook. ISBN 9780867090796. 

Translated

• The Fables of La Fontaine (illustrated by Simone Baudoin). New York: Grossett & Dunlap, 1957; London: Macdonald, 1959.
• Once Upon a Time Stories (illustrated by Elisabeth Ivanovsky & Jean Léon Huens). New York: Grossett & Dunlap, 1959; London: Macdonald, 1960.
• Russian Fairy Tales. New York: Golden Press, 1960.
• Chinese Fairy Tales. New York: Golden Press, 1960.
• The Snow Queen, and other tales. New York: Golden Books, 1961.
• Tales of India: Magical adventures of three princes (illustrated by Sergio Rizzato). New York: Golden Books, 1961.
• The Golden Book of Fairy Tales. New York: Golden Books, 1999.

Marie Ponsot reads Winter SD

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• Marie Ponsot profile & 6 poems at the Academy of American Poets
• Marie Ponsot b. 1921 at the Poetry Foundation
• Marie Ponsot at PoemHunter (1 poem)

Audio / video

• Marie Ponsot at YouTube
• Marie Ponsot at Amazon.com

About

• Hidden Herstories: Marie Ponsot at City Lights Blog
• Random House interview, 2000
• Marie Ponsot interview with Benjamin Ivry, Bomb magazine
• Interview with Claude Ponsot in Parisiana magazine.
• In Conversation: Marie Ponsot at the Brooklyn Rail, 2008.
• "The Wonder Years" (review by Stephen Burt of Easy), New York Times, December 16, 2009.