Poet Jane Hirshfield on Tap for 10th Annual Raymo Lecture
October 07, 2010
The tenth annual Chet Raymo Lecture, slated for Wednesday, October 27 at 6 p.m., will feature award-winning poet Jane Hirshfield. The author of six collections of poetry, Hirshfield has been described as "radiant and passionate" by the New York Times. All are welcome to attend the event, which will be held in the Martin Institute.
From desire and loss to impermanence and beauty, Hirshfield's poems focus on matters of everyday life. Her book of essays Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry as well as three anthologies, which spotlight the work of women poets from the past, have become classics in their fields.
Her latest collection After was shortlisted for England's T.S. Eliot Prize and was named a "best book of 2006" by the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and London Financial Times.
Hirshfield's honors include The Poetry Center Book Award, fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, Columbia University's Translation Center Award, the Commonwealth Club of California Poetry Medal, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award.
In 2004, Hirshfield was awarded the 70th Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement by The Academy of American Poets.
Shortly after graduating from Princeton in1973 as a member of the university's first graduating class to include women, Hirshfield published her first poem.
She put aside her writing for nearly eight years to study at the San Francisco Zen Center. After completing her Zen studies in the early 1980s, Hirshfield returned to writing and began teaching as well.
From 1991-1998, she was a lecturer in creative writing at the University of San Francisco. She also spent time as a visiting professor at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Cincinnati.
Hirshfield presents at numerous writers conferences and in-school programs, including Squaw Valley Art of the Wild Writers Conference since 1992, and Bennington College M.F.A. writing seminars since 1999. She also was a part of the California Poets in the School program from 1979-1985.
To view an Aspen Writers' Foundation interview with Hirshfield, visit here.
Jane Hirshfield Bibliography
Poetry
- Alaya, Quarterly Review of Literature Poetry Series (Princeton, NJ), 1982.
- Of Gravity & Angels, Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 1988.
- The October Palace, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.
- The Lives of the Heart, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.
- Given Sugar, Given Salt, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.
- After, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.
Other
- Editor and translator, with Mariko Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon: Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, Scribner (New York, NY), 1988, expanded edition, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.
- Editor and translator, Women in Praise of the Sacred: Forty-Three Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.
- Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.
Books
- Contemporary Women Poets, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1997.
About the Chet Raymo Literary Series
Established in 2001 to honor one of Stonehill's most celebrated professors and his contributions to fiction and non-fiction, the Chet Raymo Literary Series is an annual event that brings significant writers of poetry, fiction or non-fiction to Stonehill's campus to share their work and to speak about the art of writing.
Chet Raymo, a professor of physics and astronomy since 1964, is the noted author of 18 books, including his latest release When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy.
Past Speakers Include:
Sarah Vowell-2009
Tony Kushner-2008
Suzan-Lori Parks-2007
Billy Collins-2006
Barry Lopez-2005
Seamus Heaney-2004
Anne Michaels-2003
Robert Pinsky-2002
Chet Raymo-2001
Contact
For more information, contact Communications and Media Relations at 508-565-1321.