Annie Finch (born October 31, 1956) is an American poet, critic, editor, translator, playwright, and performer and the editor of the first major anthology of literature about

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

. Her

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

is known for its often incantatory use of rhythm,

meter The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

, and

poetic form Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

and for its themes of

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

goddesses A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...

, and

earth-based spirituality Earth-centered religion or nature worship is a system of religion based on the veneration of natural phenomena. It covers any religion that worships the earth, nature, or fertility deity, such as the various forms of goddess worship or matriarchal ...

. Her books include ''The Poetry Witch Little Book of Spells'', ''Spells: New and Selected Poems'', ''The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self'', ''A Poet’s Craft'', ''Calendars'', and ''Among the Goddesses.''

Early life and education

Annie Ridley Crane Finch was born in New Rochelle, New York, on October 31, 1956. Her mother was poet and doll artist Margaret Rockwell Finch and her father,

Henry Leroy Finch Jr. Henry Leroy Finch, Jr. (August 8, 1921 – August 22, 1997) was an American scholar and professor of philosophy and a pacifist organizer. Early life and education Roy Finch was born in New York City the oldest child of Henry Le Roy Finch and M ...

, was a pacifist leader and a scholar of philosophy whose works include three books on

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...

. Her great-aunt was the socialist organizer, politician, and writer

Jessie Wallace Hughan Jessie Wallace Hughan (December 25, 1875 – April 10, 1955) was an American educator, a socialist activist, and a radical pacifist. During her college days she was one of four co-founders of Alpha Omicron Pi, a national fraternity for university ...

. Finch began writing poetry as a child. She was educated in public schools, then for two years at Oakwood Friends School and one year at Simon's Rock Early College, where she studied filmmaking and art history. At

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

she studied poetry, anthropology, the history of the English language with

Marie Borroff Marie Edith Borroff (September 10, 1923 – July 5, 2019) was an American poet, translator, and the Sterling Professor of English emerita at Yale University. Life Borroff was born in New York City in 1923, the daughter of professional musicians ...

, and Versification with Penelope Laurans, graduating

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

in 1979. After traveling in Africa with painter Alix Bacon, in the early eighties she settled in New York's East Village, where she worked at

Natural History Magazine ''Natural History'' is a natural history magazine published in the United States. The stated mission of the magazine is to promote public understanding and appreciation of nature and science. History Founded in 1900 by the American Museum of N ...

and self-published and performed the rhythmical experimental longpoem''The Encyclopedia of Scotland.'' In 1984, Finch encountered the work of

Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018. October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) ...

in a bookstore and "recognized in her a soul-mother, someone else for whom poetry was performative, sacred, curative, indispensable, physical." She immediately applied to the University of Houston, where Shange was teaching, and earned her M.A. in creative writing there in 1985 with a thesis in Verse Drama directed by Shange. Finch earned a Ph.D in English and American Literature from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1990, studying

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...

with

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "th ...

and pursuing a self-designed concentration in Versification under the supervision of

Diane Middlebrook Diane Helen Middlebrook ( Wood; April 16, 1939 – December 15, 2007) Cynthia Haven"Diane Middlebrook, professor emeritus and legendary biographer, dies at 68" ''Stanford Report'', December 15, 2007. was an American biographer, poet, and tea ...

Poetic career

Finch's first poetry collection, ''Eve'' (Story Line Press, 1997), was a finalist for the

National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program. Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and cho ...

and the

Yale Series of Younger Poets The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the Uni ...

. ''Calendars'' (

Tupelo Press Tupelo Press is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1999. It produced its first titles in 2001, publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Originally located in Dorset, Vermont, the press has since moved to North Adams, Massachus ...

, 2003), finalist for the

and shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Book of the Year award, is structured around a series of poems written for performance to celebrate the

Wheel of the Year The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern pagans, consisting of the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) and the midpoints between them. While names for each festival vary among dive ...

. Her third book, ''Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams'' (

Red Hen Press Red Hen Press is an American non-profit press located in Pasadena, California, and specializing in the publication of poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. The press is a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, and was a final ...

, 2010), which received the Sarasvati Award for Poetry, is a hybrid work combining narrative and dramatic structure to tell a mythic story about abortion. ''The Encyclopedia of Scotland'' was published in 2010 by Salt Publishing in the U.K.;Finch, Annie. "Preface." ''The Encyclopedia of Scotland'', xi in the same year, Carnegie Mellon University Press reissued ''Eve'' in the Contemporary Classics Poetry Series. ''Spells: New and Selected Poems'' (

Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present for ...

, 2012), collects poems from each of Finch's previous books along with previously unpublished poems. ''The Poetry Witch Little Book of Spells'' (2019), also from Wesleyan University Press, offers small spells of fewer than eight lines, gathered by Finch from the longer poems of ''Spells.'' Finch's poems are collected in anthologies including the ''Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day'', ''Penguin Book of The Sonnet'', ''Norton Anthology of World Poetry'', and ''Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century American Poetry''. Her poems for public occasions include a

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

poem for Yale University and the memorial poem for the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

installed in New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine (accompanying the commemorative sculpture by

Meredith Bergmann Meredith Bergmann is an American sculptor, poet, and essayist whose work is said to "forge enriching links between the past and the concerns of the present." She studied at Wesleyan University and graduated from The Cooper Union with a BFA. While ...

). She has written that she believes it is part of her calling as a poet to compose

occasional poetry Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage. Term As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the work' ...

on topics of personal and cultural importance.

Critical reception

Finch's dedication to writing in meter and her role as a scholar, editor, and critic of poetic form led some reviewers of her first books to classify her poetry within the movement known as

New Formalism New Formalism is a late 20th- and early 21st-century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical, rhymed verse and narrative poetry on the grounds that all three are necessary if American poetry is to compete with novels an ...

. ''

Dictionary of Literary Biography The ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' is a specialist biographical dictionary dedicated to literature. Published by Gale, the 375-volume setRogers, 106. covers a wide variety of literary topics, periods, and genres, with a focus on American an ...

'' named her "one of the central figures in contemporary American poetry" for her role in the reclamation of poetic form. But reviewers soon noticed key differences between Finch's poetry and that of other new formalist poets. Henry Taylor, for example, claimed that Finch was not a typical new formalist because she did not focus on the realities of contemporary life, and C.L. Rawlins emphasized the incantatory use of form in ''Eve'', writing, "Finch is a poet in her bones . . . . What she proves in ''Eve'' is that rhyme-and-meter isn't just a formerly fashionable sort of bondage, but a bioacoustic key to memory and emotion." Cindy Williams Gutierrez made a similar point in a review of a later book: “Finch is more shaman than formalist. She is keenly aware of the shape and sound of her poems. Whether in a chant, sonnet, ghazal, or even Billy Collins’ contrived paradelle, her skill is effortless: Form is merely the skin that allows her poems to breathe with ease.” Poet and critic

Ron Silliman Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946) is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wr ...

has situated Finch in the context of

experimental poetry Experimental literature is a genre that is, according to Warren Motte in his essa"Experimental Writing, Experimental Reading" "difficult to define with any sort of precision." He says the "writing is often invoked in an "offhand manner" and the ...

, writing, "Annie Finch can't be a new formalist, precisely because she's passionate both about the new and about form. She is also one of the great risk-takers in contemporary poetry, right up there with

Lee Ann Brown Lee Ann Brown (born 1963) is an American poet and book publisher. She has published several volumes of poetry in addition to being the founder of Tender Buttons Press, a poetry press dedicated to publishing experimental women's poetry. Early li ...

Bernadette Mayer Bernadette Mayer (May 12, 1945 – November 22, 2022) was an American poet, writer, and visual artist associated with both the Language poets and the New York School. Early life and education Bernadette Mayer was born in a predominantly Ge ...

in her willingness to completely shatter our expectations as readers." The experimental aspect of Finch's work became more evident with the publication of ''Spells,'' which includes 35 of the poems composed in the 1980s that she refers to as the "lost poems." In the preface to ''Spells'', she describes these as "metrical and experimental poems

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

. . did not find their audience until the avant-garde's rediscovery of formal poetic strategies just a few years ago." Reviewing ''Calendars'', poet and Goddess scholar

Patricia Monaghan Patricia Monaghan (February 15, 1946, – November 11, 2012) was a poet, a writer, a spiritual activist, and an influential figure in the contemporary women's spirituality movement. Monaghan wrote over 20 books on a range of topics including Go ...

was one of the first critics to articulate the intersection of formal poetics and spirituality in Finch's work, writing, "Annie Finch is a traditionalist. Not in the way the word is commonly used . . . but in a strange experimental way. An oracle, an ecstatic maenad: that is the kind of traditional poet Annie Finch is." Finch's literary archive was purchased by the

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Es ...

at Yale University in 2016.

Feminism and spirituality

In the preface to ''Spells: New and Selected Poems'' (2013), Finch writes, "Compiling this book has led me to appreciate how much I was inspired as a poet by coming of age during the feminist movement of the 1970s. Reading it has helped me understand the ways I struggled over the years to throw off the burden of misogyny on my spiritual, psychological, intellectual, political, and poetic identities. My themes are often female-centered . . . I am proud to define myself as a woman poet." Finch's feminism is also evident in her prose writing, editing, and literary organizing. Her first anthology ''A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women'' (1993) collected poems and essays by contemporary women poets. The "metrical code," the central theory of her book of literary criticism ''The Ghost of Meter'' (1994), is cited in the article on "feminist poetics" by

Elaine Showalter Elaine Showalter (born January 21, 1941) is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She influenced feminist literary criticism in the United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocr ...

in the ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.'' Her essay collection ''The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self'' (2005) includes writings on women poets including

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...

Carolyn Kizer Carolyn Ashley Kizer (December 10, 1925 – October 9, 2014) was an American poet of the Pacific Northwest whose works reflect her feminism. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. According to an article at the Center for the Study of the Pacific ...

Maxine Kumin Maxine Kumin (June 6, 1925 – February 6, 2014) was an American poet and author. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1981–1982. Biography Early years Maxine Kumin was born Maxine Winokur on June ...

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," who ...

Lydia Sigourney Lydia Huntley Sigourney (September 1, 1791 – June 10, 1865), ''née'' Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poet, author, and publisher during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." She had a ...

Sara Teasdale Sara Teasdale (August 8, 1884January 29, 1933) was an American lyric poet. She was born Sarah Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and used the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger after her marriage in 1914. In 1918 she won a Pulitzer Prize for her ...

, and

Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly ( – December 5, 1784) was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Gates, Henry Louis, ''Trials of Phillis Wheatley: Ameri ...

, many based in feminist theory. In 1997, Finch founded the international listserv Discussion of Women Poets ( Wom-Po). She facilitated the listserv until 2004 when she passed ownership of the list to Amy King. In October 2016, anticipating the #MeToo movement, Finch became one of the first victims of sexual assault in the literary world to name writers, editors, and teachers who had sexually assaulted her during her career. In 2019 Finch launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign to raise funds for the publication of ''Choice Words: Writers on Abortion'', which the publisher,

Haymarket Books Haymarket Books is a left-wing non-profit, independent book publisher based in Chicago. History Haymarket Books was founded in 2001 by Anthony Arnove, Ahmed Shawki and Julie Fain, all of whom had previously worked at the '' International Sociali ...

, calls "the first major literary anthology about abortion." The Kickstarter launched two days before Alabama passed an

abortion ban Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances ...

and reached its fundraising goal in the first week. Choice Words was published in April 2020. Claire Keyes notes in ''Scribner's American Writers'', "A strong current in inch'swork is the decentering of the self, a theme which stems from her deep connection with the natural world and her perception of the self as part of nature." In an interview Finch stated, "Some of my poems are lyric, some narrative, some dramatic, and some meditative, but all are concerned with the mystery of the embodied sacred.". Finch writes in the preface of her 2013 collection ''Spells: New and Selected Poems'' that she considers her poems and verse plays to be "spells" whose rhythm and form invite readers "to experience words not just in the mind but in the body." Finch started a blog called American Witch in 2010 and has published several articles about earth-centered spirituality in

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

Verse plays, libretto, and musical settings

Finch's dramatic works of poetry include ''The Encyclopedia of Scotland'' (1983), originally performed in a libretto version with live music, as well as ''Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams'' (Red Hen Press, 2010) and ''Wolf Song,'' which premiered at Portland, Maine's Mayo Street Arts in 2012. Both plays were collaborative productions incorporating music, dance, puppets, and masks. Finch has also written and performed several works in a genre she calls "poetry ritual theater," combining multimedia poetry performance with interactive audience ritual; these including "Five Directions," premiered at Mayo Street Arts, Portland, Maine, in 2012, directed by Alzenira Quezada, and "Winter Solstice Dreams," premiered at Deepak Homebase, New York, in 2018, directed by Vera Beren. Composers who have set Finch's poems to music include Stefania de Kennessey, Matthew Harris, and Dale Trumbore. Trumbore's settings of the poems have won the Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Award, the Gregg Smith Choral Composition Contest, and other awards. Finch was invited by composer

Deborah Drattell Deborah Drattell (born 1954) is an American composer. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and started her career in music as a violinist. Her compositions have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Tanglewood a ...

to write the libretto for the opera ''Marina'', based on the life of poet Marina Tsvetaeva. it was produced by

American Opera Projects The American Opera Project (AOP) is a professional opera company based in Brooklyn, New York City, and is a member of Opera America, the Fort Greene Association, the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A. ...

in 2003, directed by

Anne Bogart Anne Bogart (born September 25, 1951) is an American theatre and opera director. She is currently one of the Artistic Directors of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a professor at Columbia Univ ...

, and sung by

Lauren Flanigan Lauren Flanigan (born May 18, 1958) is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1980s. She enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with the New York City Opera, appearing with the company almost every y ...

Prosody and literary criticism

Finch's 1993 book ''The Ghost of Meter: Culture and Prosody in American Free Verse'' uses prosody and postmodern and feminist theory to explore the semiotics of meter in free verse poetry by

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massach ...

Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

, and other poets. Building on the work of

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...

and on

John Hollander John Hollander (October 28, 1929 – August 17, 2013) was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter C ...

's theory of "the metrical frame," Finch calls her theory of metrical meanings "the metrical code." The essay collection ''The Body of Poetry'' explores further topics in feminist poetics and poetic form including translation, "Metrical Diversity," and readings of poets including

Marilyn Hacker Marilyn Hacker (born November 27, 1942) is an American poet, translator and critic. She is Professor of English emerita at the City College of New York. Her books of poetry include ''Presentation Piece'' (1974), which won the National Book Award, ...

, and John Peck.Finch, Annie. "Metrical Diversity." ''The Body of Poetry'', 84-92 Finch's edited or coedited anthologies of poetry and poetics include ''A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women'', ''An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets on the Diversity of Their Art'', ''Villanelles'', and ''Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters''. She has also authored a poetry-writing textbook, ''A Poet's Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry.'' At a time when

was the only nineteenth-century woman poet receiving critical attention, Finch's 1987 article "The Sentimental Poetess in the World: Metaphor and Subjectivity in

's Nature Poetry" approached Sigourney through postmodern theories of the poetic self. A subsequent essay on Sigourney was commissioned for ''Lydia Sigourney: Critical Essays and Cultural Views'' (2018), which also included Finch's elegiac poem for Sigourney. In the essay collection ''The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self,'' Finch discusses her ideas about "poetess's poetics" in broader terms

Translation

Finch's translation from French of the poetry of

Louise Labé Louise Charlin Perrin Labé, ( 1524 – 25 April 1566), also identified as La Belle Cordière (The Beautiful Ropemaker), was a feminist French poet of the Renaissance born in Lyon, the daughter of wealthy ropemaker Pierre Charly and his second wif ...

was published by

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

, honored by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, and represented in the ''Norton Anthology of World Literature''. ''Spells'' includes translations from

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

Classical Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

, and Russian. In the preface to ''Spells'' and in The Body of Poetry, Finch explains that the physical qualities of the original poem, including

and

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

, are central to her translation process.

Teaching

Finch began teaching as a graduate assistant, first at the University of Houston and then at

, where she TA'ed for

's "Introduction to Poetry" and developed an original course, "Women, Language, and Literature." She has taught on the creative writing and literature faculties of universities including New College of California, University of Northern Iowa, Miami University (Ohio), and the University of Southern Maine, where she served as Director of the Stonecoast MFA Program from 2004 to 2012. She has facilitated poetry workshops at conferences and literary centers including Wesleyan Writers Conference, Poetry by the Sea, West Chester Poetry Conference, Ruskin Arts Center, and Poets House; and online at Yale Alumni Workshops, 24 Pearl St. and the London Poetry School. She has been a guest lecturer at universities including

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Since 2020, she has taught poetry, scansion, meter, and ritua
classes online

Honors and awards

*2012 Sarasvati Award for Poetry from the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, for ''Among the Goddesses'' *2010 Phi Beta Kappa Poet, Yale University *2009 Robert Fitzgerald Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Art and Craft of Versification *2008 Fellowship, Black Earth Institute *2006 Honorable Mention for a translation in the field of women's studies by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, for ''Complete Poetry of Louise Labe'' *2005 Alumni Award, University of Houston Creative Writing Program *2003 Shortlisted, Forward Poetry Book of the Year Award, for ''Calendars'' *2002 Finalist, National Poetry Series, for ''Calendars'' *2002 Finalist, Yale Series of Younger Poets, for ''Eve'' *2002 Finalist, National Poetry Series, for ''Eve'' *1993 Nicholas Roerich Fellow, Wesleyan Writers Conference *1989 Graduate Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center *1979 Chauncey Brewster Tinker Prize, Yale University *1979 Distinction in English, Yale University

Books

Poetry

*''Spells: New and Selected Poems''.

, 2012. *''Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams''

, 2010. inner, Sarasvati Award for Poetry, Association for the Study of Women and Mythology *''Calendars''.

, 2003. hortlisted, Foreword Poetry Book of the Year Award for 2003, Finalist, National Poetry Series Second edition with Audio CD an
downloadable Readers' Companion
2008. *''Eve''. Story Line Press. 1997. inalist, National Poetry Series, Yale Series of Younger Poets, Brittingham Prize Reissued by Carnegie Mellon University Press, Classic Contemporaries Poetry Series, 2010. *''The Encyclopedia of Scotland''. Caribou Press, 1982; Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2005.

Poetry chapbooks

*''The Poetry Witch Little Book of Spells''. Wesleyan University Press, 2019. *''Goddess Poems''. Poetry Witch Press, 2015. *''The Voice Was the Sea''. Voices From the American Land, 2013. *''Shadow-Bird: From the Lost Poems''. Dusie Kollektiv/Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009. *''Annie Finch's Greatest Hits: Poems 1975-2005''. Pudding House, 2006. *''Home Birth''. Dos Madres Press, 2004. *''Season Poems''. Calliope Press, 2002. *''Catching the Mermother''. Aralia Press, 1996. *''The Encyclopedia of Scotland: A Libretto''. Caribou Press, 1982 (self-published).

Translation

*''The Complete Poetry and Prose of Louise Labé: A Bilingual Edition''. Edited with Critical Introductions and Prose Translations by Deborah Lesko Baker and Poetry Translations by Annie Finch. Chicago:

, 2006. (Translation).

Opera Libretti

*''Marina''. American Opera Projects, DR2 Theater, New York, 2003.

Poetics

*''A Poet's Ear: A Handbook of Meter and Form''. Ann Arbor:

University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including L ...

, 2013. *''A Poet's Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Shaping Your Poems''. Ann Arbor:

, 2012. *''The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self''. Poets on Poetry Series, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. *''The Ghost of Meter: Culture and Prosody in American Free Verse''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993. Paperback edition with new preface, 2001.

Edited books

*''Choice Words: Writers on Abortion''. Chicago, Il: Haymarket Books, 2020. *''A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women''. Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1994. Reprinted, Textos Books, 2007. *''After New Formalism: Poets on Form, Narrative, and Tradition''. Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1999.

Coedited books

*''Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters''. With Alexandra Oliver. Random House: Everymans Library, 2015. *''Villanelles''. With Marie-Elizabeth Mali. Random House: Everymans Library, 2012. *''Multiformalisms: Postmodern Poetics of Form''. With

Susan M. Schultz Susan M. Schultz (born 1958) is an American poet, critic, publisher and English professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She specializes in modern and contemporary poetry, American literature, and creative writing. She moved from Virginia ...

. Textos Books, 2008. *''Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics''. With

and Deborah Brown.

University of Arkansas Press The University of Arkansas Press is a university press that is part of the University of Arkansas and has been a member of the Association of University Presses since 1984. Its mission is to publish peer-reviewed books and academic journals. It wa ...

, 2005. *''An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art''. With Katherine Varnes. University of Michigan Press, 2002. *''Carolyn Kizer: Perspectives on Her Life and Work''. With Johanna Keller and Candace McClelland. CavanKerry Press, 2000.

References

External links

Academy of American Poets Annie Finch page

Annie Finch's HomepageReaders' Companion to ''Calendars''

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reminiscences about Annie Finch
"Annie Finch", ''Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poetry''

"Ringing Aloud With Newer Sounds: Prosodic Subjectivity and the Mother-Infant Matrix in the Poetry of George Herbert and Annie Finch" in ''Mezzo Cammin''Annie Finch at The Poetry Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finch, Annie 1956 births American opera librettists American essayists Living people Poets from New York (state) Writers from New Rochelle, New York Yale University alumni Stanford University alumni University of Houston alumni Poets from Maine American translators American women poets Formalist poets American women essayists Women librettists Occasional poets 21st-century American women