Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan is an American poet of Jewish background. She was born in the Bronx in 1932. Today, she lives in Potomac, Maryland with her husband Ira Pastan, an accomplished physician and researcher.

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.

Linda 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"), [ [http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/blwc/faculty/94fac.htm "1994 Faculty"] ] , webpage of Middlebury College. Retrieved 2008-07-21.] 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.

Works

*1971 "A Perfect Circle of Sun". Chicago: Swallow Press Inc.
*1975 "Aspects of Eve". New York: Liveright.
*1978 "The Five Stages of Grief". New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
*1980 "Setting the Table".
*1981 "Waiting For My Life". New York: W. W. Norton & Co
*1982 "PM / AM". New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
*1985 "A Fraction of Darkness". New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
*1988 "The Imperfect Paradise". New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
*1991 "Heroes in Disguise". New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
*1995 "An Early Afterlife". New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
*1998 "Carnival Evening. New and Selected Poems: 1968 – 1998". New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
*2002 "The Last Uncle". New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
*2006 "Queen of a Rainy Country. Poems". W. W. Norton & Co.

References

*Franklin, Benjamin. 1981. "Theme and Structure in Linda Pastan's Poetry". In: "Poet Lore". 75 (4). 234 – 241.
*Mishkin, Tracy. 2004 "Aspects of Eve: The Garden of Eden in the Poetry of Linda Pastan". In: Behlau, Ulrike (ed.), Reitz, Bernhard (ed.). "Jewish Women's Writing of the 1990's and Beyond". Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag. 95 – 103.
*"Whatever is at Hand. A Conversation with Linda Pastan". 1989. In: Ingersoll, Earl (ed.), Kitchen, Judith (ed.), Rubin, Stan (ed.). "The Post-Confessionals: Conversations with American Poets of the Eighties". New York: Associated University Press. 135 – 149.

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec03/pastan_07-07.html Interview with Linda Pastan] . Brown, Jeffrey. 2003. "Conversation: Pastan". In: "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer". (7 July 2003). Online NewsHour.
* [http://www.baylortv.com/video.php?id=000534 Poetry Reading by Linda Pastan at the 10th Beall Poetry Festival] , Baylor University, Waco, Texas (2 April 2004).
* [http://www.baylortv.com/video.php?id=000535 Beall Poetry Festival: Panel including Denis Donoghue, Galway Kinnell and Linda Pastan] , Baylor University, Waco, Texas (3 April 2004).
* [http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3622 Poetry Reading by Linda Pastan at the National Book Festival 2004] , Washington D.C. (October 2004).
* [http://www.nortonpoets.com/pastanl.htm Linda Pastan on Norton Poets Online]
* [http://www.poemhunter.com/linda-pastan/poems/ A Selection of Poems by Linda Pastan]
* [http://www.alittlepoetry.com/pastan.html Linda Pastan: Online Poems at alittlepoetry.com]