Ellen Doré Watson is an American poet, translator and teacher.

Career

Watson is author of six collections of poems, most recently, ''pray me stay eager'' (

Alice James Books Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington. History and mission "Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, MA in 197 ...

). Her book, ''Ladder Music,'' was a New York/New England Award winner from

. Other honors include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant and a 1997

Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award was an award given annually to beginning women writers. Established in 1995 by American author Rona Jaffe, the Foundation offers grants to writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The award was ...

. Watson has translated eleven books, including ''The Alphabet in the Park: The Selected poems of

Adélia Prado Adélia Luzia Prado Freitas (born 13 December 1935) is a Brazilian writer and poet. Life She was born in Divinópolis, Minas Gerais (one of the landlocked states of Brazil), where she still lives. Her family were railroad laborers, and both h ...

'' (

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 ...

), for which she was awarded an NEA Translation Fellowship and interviewed by ''BOMB Magazine.'' In addition to her Brazilian Portuguese translations, the Winter 1999 issue of ''Modern Poetry in Translation'' features contemporary Palestinian poetry she co-translated from the Arabic with Saadi Simawe. Her poems have appeared in literary journals, including ''

Orion Magazine ''Orion'' is a quarterly, advertisement-free, nonprofit magazine focused on nature, culture, and place addressing environmental and societal issues. It has published such authors as Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Michael P ...

,'' ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

,'' ''

Boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway. Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls. In American usage, boulevards may ...

,'' ''

The Cortland Review ''The Cortland Review'' is an online literary magazine established in 1997, publishing in 6 annual issues the work of prominent poets and writers in text, audio, and video. See also * List of literary magazines External links * Bimonthly ...

,'' ''

AGNI Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ...

,'' ''

The American Poetry Review ''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizabe ...

,'' ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

,'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

,'' and in anthologies including ''After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events '' (Santa Lucia Books, 2008), ''Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English,'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2000), and ''Never Before: Poems About First Experiences'' (

Four Way Books Four Way Books is an American nonprofit literary press located in New York City, New York, which publishes poetry and short fiction by emerging and established writers. It features the work of the winners of national poetry competitions, as well ...

, 2005). Watson grew up in

Plainview, New York Plainview is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located near the North Shore of Long Island in the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 27,100. The Plainview post office has t ...

, and received her B.A. and MFA from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

, and lives in

Conway, Massachusetts Conway is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,761 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Conway was first settled by English colonists ...

. She is the director of The Poetry Center at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, and Lecturer in the English Department, where she teaches Reading Contemporary Poetry. She is a poetry editor for ''

The Massachusetts Review ''The Massachusetts Review'' is a literary quarterly founded in 1959 by a group of professors from Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It receives financial support from Five Colleg ...

,'' and a member of the Alice James Books Cooperative Board.Alice James Books > About Us > Board Members

Published works

Full-Length Poetry Collections * ''pray me stay eager'' (

) * ''Dogged Hearts'' (

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 ...

, 2010) * ''This Sharpening'' (

, 2006) * ''Ladder Music'' (

, 2002) * ''We Live in Bodies'' (

, 1997) Chapbooks * ''Broken Railings'' (Owl Creek Press, Winner of the Green Lake Chapbook Poetry Prize) Selected Translations * ''Zero,'' by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão (Dalkey Archive Press, 2003) * ''The Alphabet in the Park: The Selected poems of Adélia Prado'' (

, 1990) *''The Tree of the Seventh Heaven,'' by Milton Hatoum, Antheneum, 1994 *''High Art'', by Rubem Fonseca, Harper & Row, 1986 *''The Tower of Glass'', by Ivan Angelo, Avon Books, 1985 *''And Still the Earth'', by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, Avon Books, 1985 *"The Truth is a Seven-Headed Animal", by Milton Hatoum, ''Grand Street'', Spring 1998 *''The Mystical Rose: Selected Poems'', by Adélia Prado, Bloodaxe Books (U.K.), Nov. 2014 *''Ex-Voto: Poems,'' by Adélia Prado, Tupelo Press, September 2013 *''The Alphabet in the Park: Selected Poems of Adélia Prado,'' Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England, 1990; 2nd Edition 1994 *"Seductive Sadness Winks at Me" and "The Alphabet in the Park," by Adélia Prado, ''The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry'', FSG, 2011 *"Denouement," "Serenade," and "The Tenacious Devil Who Doesn't Exist," by Adélia Prado, ''The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry'', Ecco, 2010 *"The Transfer of the Body," ''The Literary Olympians: An International Anthology,'' Fox-Brown & Company, 1992

References

Sources

Tupelo Press

Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award

Orion Magazine

The Massachusetts Review

Ploughshares

Smith College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Ellen Dore Poets from Massachusetts University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program for Poets & Writers alumni Smith College faculty Living people Poets from New York (state) American translators The New Yorker people American women poets People from Plainview, New York Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award winners People from Conway, Massachusetts Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics 21st-century American women