'It's You In Partnership'

 

“Writing in form is a way of developing your thinking - your thinking along with the tradition. In a way, it's not you alone, it's you in partnership.” — Marilyn Nelson

Born on this date in 1946, poet, translator and children's book writer Nelson is author or translator of 20 books and 5 chapbooks.  Professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut, she is the founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a retreat center for new or emerging writers, especially poets.  

Born in Cleveland, the daughter of one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, she  began writing while in elementary school, gravitated to poetry and never looked back, although readers of her kids’ books say they’re glad she continued in that genre, too.   After earning a Ph.D. in English, she taught at Connecticut for many years and ultimately was honored by the State of Connecticut as Poet Laureate.

Nelson’s poetry collections include the terrific The Homeplace, which won the  Anisfield-Wolf Award and was the first of three of her books to be finalists for the National Book Award.   She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Frost Medal.                             

  

Soft spoken and thoughtful, Nelson said a person’s voice is as important in presenting a poem as are the words on paper.  “Many performance poets seem to believe that yelling a poem makes it comprehensible,” she said. “They are wrong.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with friends

Writersmoment.blogspot.com