Eloise Klein Healy (born 1943) is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. She has published five books of

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 ...

and three

chapbooks A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered booklet ...

. Her collection of poems, ''Passing'', was a finalist for the 2003 Lambda Literary Awards in Poetry and the

Audre Lorde Award The Audre Lorde Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour works of lesbian poetry. First presented in 2001, the award was named in memory of American poet Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lo ...

from

The Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards prog ...

. Healy has also received the Grand Prize of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival and has received six

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

nominations.

Biography

Healy was born in 1943 in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

and grew up in rural

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. She was involved in the

Woman's Building The Woman's Building was a non-profit arts and education center located in Los Angeles, California. The Woman's Building focused on feminist art and served as a venue for the women's movement and was spearheaded by artist Judy Chicago, graphic de ...

, the well known West Coast feminist cultural center, throughout the 1970s and 1980s in various capacities including as a teacher and a member of the Board of Directors. Healy became the first Poet Laureate of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 2012. She was instrumental in directing the

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...

program at

Cal State Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest u ...

, started the MFA program in creative writing at Antioch University, Los Angeles where she is professor emeritus, and founded Arktoi Books, an imprint of

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 ...

Works

Individual works

* ''Artemis In Echo Park: Poetry'', Firebrand Books, 1991, * ''Building Some Changes'', (chapbook), (A Beyond Baroque New Book), Beyond Baroque Foundation, 1976, OCLC: 2462676 * ''The Islands Project'',

, 2007, * ''Ordinary Wisdom'',

, 2005, * ''A Packet Beating Like a Heart'', (chapbook), Books of a Feather, 1981, OCLC: 8463876 * ''Passing'', Red Hen Press, 2002, * ''A Wild Surmise: New & Selected Poems & Recordings'', Red Hen Press, 2013, * ''Women's Studies Chronicles'' (Laguna Poets Series, 99), The Inevitable Press, 1998, (chapbook)

Anthologies including her writings

* ''Another City: Writing from Los Angeles'', ed. David L. Ulin, City Lights Publishers, 2001, * ''The Geography of Home: California's Poetry of Place'', Heyday Books, 1999, * ''Grand Passion: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond'', principal ed., Suzanne Lummis, Red Wind Books, 1995, * ''Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals'', eds., Barbara Peterson, Brenda Peterson and Deena Metzger, Ballantine Books, 1999, * ''The World in Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave'', eds., Michael Lassell, Elena Georgiou, St. Martin's Press, 2000,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Healy, Eloise Klein Living people Poets Laureate of Los Angeles American women poets American lesbian writers American LGBT poets 1943 births Chapbook writers 21st-century American women