Naomi Replansky. Photo by Morris Bearman. Courtesy Jewish Daily Forward.
Naomi Replansky (born May 23, 1918) is an American poet.
Life[]
Replansky was born in the Bronx, New York City. Replansky's poems have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, such as No More Masks!, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies, and Poets of the Non-Existent City: Los Angeles in the McCarthy Era.
She is also known for her translations from Yiddish and from the German of Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Bertolt Brecht; Brecht's "Der Sumpf," set by composer Hanns Eisler as one of 5 "Hollywood Elegies," was long known only in her version ("The Swamp") until the original resurfaced among Peter Lorre's papers and was published in the 1997 Frankfurt edition. Her translation of Brecht's play, "St. Joan of the Stockyards" was performed off-Broadway by the Encounter Theater Company. She has been a guest teacher at Pitzer College.
She has given readings in New York, Minneapolis and elsewhere, and has resided in Paris, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Replansky's work has been featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac.
She lives in Manhattan, New York City; her companion is writer Eva Kollisch.
Writing[]
"My chief poetic influences," Replansky states, "have been William Blake, folk songs, Shakespeare, George Herbert, Emily Dickinson and Japanese poetry."[1]
Ring Song, containing poems written from 1936 to 1952, was published in 1952; it was followed by the chapbook Twenty-One Poems in 1988. Of the hiatus in publication, she says, “I write slowly.”[2] Twenty-One Poems contains versions of work contained in the other two collections. The Dangerous World contains 42 new poems as well as 25 revised poems from Ring Song.
The meticulousness of her work indicates a painstaking mind and an unusual degree of perfectionism in the craftsmanship of her poems. Though often small in scale, they are giant in meaning.
Critical reputation[]
The clarity and power of Replansky's work have been praised by such writers as David Ignatow, Marie Ponsot, Grace Paley, and Ursula K. Le Guin. George Oppen wrote of her in 1981: “Naomi Replansky must be counted among the most brilliant American poets. That she has not received adequate praise is one of the major mysteries of the world of poetry.”[3] Booklist said of The Dangerous World, “with timeless grace, she sets each poem simmering with powerful phrasing and universal experience.... Replansky brings us ageless work in a collection that should not be missed.”[4]
Recognition[]
Ring Song was nominated for the National Book Award.[5]
Her Collected Poems won the Poetry Society of America's 2013 William Carlos Williams Award.[5]
An oil on linen portrait of Replansky by the artist Joseph Solman (1909-2008) is in the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.[6]
Publications[]
- Ring Song: Poems. New York: Scribner, 1952.
- Twenty-One Poems: Old and new. New York: Gingko Press, 1988.
- The Dangerous World: New and selected poems, 1934-1994. Chicago: Another Chicago Press 1994.
- Collected Poems. Boston: Black Sparrow / Godine, 2012.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[7]
Naomi Replansky reads “About Not Writing”
Naomi Replansky reads “Ring Song”
See also[]
References[]
- Poets of the Non-Existent City: Los Angeles in the McCarthy Era (edited by Estelle Gershgoren Novak). University of New Mexico Press 2002.
- "Justice, Poverty and Gender: Social Themes in the Poetry of Naomi Replansky," thesis by Ashley Ray. City University of New York, 1996.
- “‘These Were Our Times’: Red-Baiting, Blacklisting, and the Lost Literature of Dissent in Mid-Twentieth-Century California," doctoral thesis by Jessica Breheny. University of California, Santa Cruz, 2004.
Notes[]
- ↑ Contemporary Women Poets, St James Press 1997.
- ↑ Women’s Review of Books, 13:03, Dec. 1995. The article suggests she was silenced; the actual quote is: “As Replansky says, she 'writes slowly' though that is hardly the whole story.”
- ↑ Jacket copy for The Dangerous World.
- ↑ Booklist, Oct. 15, 1994.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Naomi Replansky receives William Carlos Williams Award, Naomi Replansky, March 8, 2013. Blogspot, Web, Jan. 25, 2015.
- ↑ Benjamin Ivry, Naomi Replansky's career began in a factory, Jewish Daily Forward, October 5, 2012. Web, Apr. 7, 2013.
- ↑ Search results = au:Naomi Replansky, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 25, 2014.
External links[]
- Poems
- "About Not Writing" at the Poetry Society of America
- Naomi Replansky, 2 poems at JoanNestle.com.
- Naomi Replansky at PoemHunter (2 poems)
- Naomi Replansky, "The Oasis" - 3 poems
- Audio / video
- Books
- Naomi Replansky at Amazon.com
- About
- "Naomi Replansky's career began in a factory," Jewish Daily Forward.
- "Naomi Replansky gets her due; A powerful NY-LA poet is rediscovered, Huffington Post.
- Naomi Replansky Official weblog
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