Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan

reading at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014
Born (1932-05-27) May 27, 1932
New York
Nationality American
Genre Poetry
Spouse Ira Pastan

Linda Pastan (born May 27, 1932 in New York) is an American poet of Jewish background. From 19911995 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland.[1] 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. Her most recent collections of poetry include Insomnia, Traveling Light, and Queen of a Rainy Country.

Life

Pastan has published at least 12 books of poetry and a number of essays. Her 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),[2] 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.

Two of her collections of poems were nominated for the National Book Award and one for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.[3]

Family

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

She is the mother of novelist Rachel Pastan; Washington, D.C. chef and restaurateur Peter Pastan; and Atlanta nephrologist Stephen Pastan.[4]

Works

References

  1. "Maryland at a Glance: Poets Laureate". Maryland State Archives. August 26, 2010. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  2. "1994 Faculty", webpage of Middlebury College. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
  3. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/linda-pastan
  4. "Pastan, Linda". Encyclopedia.com.

Sources

External links

External media
Audio
Linda Pastan reads "why are your poems so dark?" from the book Queen of a Rainy Country (via poemsoutloud.net)
Video
Interview with Linda Pastan. Brown, Jeffrey. 2003. "Conversation: Pastan". In: The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. (7 July 2003). Online NewsHour.
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).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.