May Swenson
| May Swenson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | May 28, 1913 Logan, Utah |
| Died | December 28, 1989 (aged 76) Bethany Beach, Delaware |
| Occupation | Poet and Playwright, Chancellor of Academy of American Poets |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Utah State University |
Anna Thilda May "May" Swenson (28 May 1913 – 4 December 1989) was an American poet and playwright. She is considered one of the most important and original poets of the 20th century, as often hailed by the noted critic Harold Bloom.
The first child of Margaret and Dan Arthur Swenson, she grew up as the eldest of 10 children in a Mormon household where Swedish was spoken regularly and English was a second language. As a lesbian, she was shunned by her family. Much of her later poetry works were devoted to children (e.g. the collection Iconographs, 1970). She also translated the work of contemporary Swedish poets, including the selected poems of Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer.
Swenson attended Utah State University in Logan, Utah, graduating in the class of 1934 with a bachelor's degree. She taught poetry as poet-in-residence at Bryn Mawr College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of California, Riverside, Purdue University, and Utah State University. From 1959 to 1966 she worked as an manuscript reviewer at New Directions Publishing. Swenson left New Directions Press in 1966 in an effort to focus completely on her own writing. She also served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1980 until her death in 1989. She was buried in the Logan City Cemetery, and her grave is marked by a granite bench on which is etched some of her poetry. For the last twenty years of her life, she lived in Sea Cliff, New York.
In 1936, Swenson worked as an editor and ghostwriter for a man called "Plat," who became her "boyfriend." "I think I should like to have a son by Plat," she wrote in her diary, "but I would not like to be married to any man, but only be myself."
...
Wikipedia