Marilyn Nelson (born April 26, 1946) is an American poet, translator, and children's book author. She is a professor emeritus at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

, and the former

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

of Connecticut, She is a winner of the

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is awarded annually by The Poetry Foundation, which also publishes Poetry (magazine), ''Poetry'' magazine. The prize was established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly. It honors a living U.S. poet whose "lifetime accomplishments war ...

, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and the

Frost Medal The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...

. From 1978 to 1994 she published under the name Marilyn Nelson Waniek. She is the author or translator of over twenty books and five chapbooks of poetry for adults and children. While most of her work deals with historical subjects, in 2014 she published a memoir, named one of NPR's Best Books of 2014, entitled ''How I Discovered Poetry''.

Early life

Nelson was born on April 26, 1946 in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, to Melvin M. Nelson, a U.S. serviceman in the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

, and Johnnie Mitchell Nelson, a teacher. She grew up on military bases, and began writing while in elementary school. She earned a B.A. from the

University of California-Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, an M.A. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1970, and a Ph.D. from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1979.

Career

She is a professor emeritus of English at the

and the founder and director of

Soul Mountain Retreat The Soul Mountain Retreat is a writer's colony in East Haddam, Connecticut, USA. History The retreat was established in 2004 with a grant from the University of Connecticut College of Liberal Arts and Sciences by the writer and former Connectic ...

. She was

of the State of Connecticut from 2001 to 2006. Her poetry collections include ''The Homeplace'' (Louisiana State University Press), which won the 1992

Anisfield-Wolf Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

and was a finalist for the 1991

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

; and ''The Fields Of Praise: New And Selected Poems'' (Louisiana State University Press), which won the

Poets' Prize The Poets' Prize is awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year. The $3000 annual prize is donated by a committee of about 20 American poets, who each nominate two books and who ...

in 1999 and was a finalist for the 1997 National Book Award. Her honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, and a 2001

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. In 2011, she spent a semester as a Brown Foundation Fellow at the

University of the South The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee (), is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an official seminary of ...

Sewanee, Tennessee Sewanee () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,535 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area. Sewanee is best known as the home of ...

. In 2012, the

Poetry Society of America The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...

awarded her the

. In 2013, Nelson was elected a chancellor of the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

Published works

;Poetry books * ''How I Discovered Poetry'' (Speak, 2016, ) * ''American Ace'' (Dial Books, 2016, ) * ''The Meeting House'' (Antrim House, 2016, ) * ''My Seneca Village'' (Namelos, 2015, ) * ''Faster Than Light: New and Selected Poems, 1996-2011'' (Louisiana State University Press, 2012, ) * '' Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story Of The Greatest All-Girl Swing Band In The World'' (Dial Books, 2009, Illustrator Jerry Pinkney, ) * ''The Freedom Business: Including A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa'' (Front Street, 2008, ) * ''A Wreath for Emmett Till'' (Houghton Mifflin, 2005, Illustrator Philippe Lardy, ) * ''The Cachoeira Tales, and Other Poems'' (Louisiana State University Press, 2005, ) * ''Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem'' (Front Street, 2004, notes and annotations by Pamela Espeland) * ''Carver, a Life in Poems'' (Front Street, 2001, ) * ''The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems'' (Louisiana State University Press, 1997, ) * ''Magnificat'' (Louisiana State University Press, 1994, ) * ''The Homeplace'' (Louisiana State University Press, 1990, ) * ''Mama's Promises'' (Louisiana State University Press, 1985, ) * ''For the Body'' (Louisiana State University Press, 1978, ) ;Chapbooks * ''She-Devil Circus'' (Aralia Press, 2001) * ''Triolets for Triolet'' (Curbstone Press, 2001) * ''Partial Truth'' (The Kutenai Press, 1992) * ''The Freedom Business: Connecticut Landscapes Through the Eyes of Venture Smith'' (Lyme Historical Society, Florence Griswold Museum, 2006, illustrated by American paintings from the Florence Griswold Museum) ;Collaborative books * ''Mrs. Nelson's Class'' (editor, World Enough Writers, 2012) * ''Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color'' (Wordsong, 2007, with Elizabeth Alexander, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, ) * ''Pemba’s Song: A Ghost Story'' (Scholastic Press, 2008, with Tonya Hegamin) * ''The Cat Walked Through the Casserole'' (Carolrhoda Books, 1984, with Pamela Espeland, various illustrators) ;Translations * ''A Little Bitty Man and Other Poems for the Very Young'' by Halfdan Rasmussen (translated from Danish with Pamela Espeland, Candlewick, 2011, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes) * ''The Ladder'' by Halfdan Rasmussen (translated from Danish, Candlewick, 2006, illustrated by Pierre Pratt) * ''The Thirteenth Month by Inge Pedersen'' (translated from Danish, Oberlin College Press, 2005) * ''Hecuba'' by Euripides, in Euripides I, Penn Greek Drama Series (translated from earlier English translations, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998) * ''Hundreds of Hens and Other Poems for Children'' by Halfdan Rasmussen (translated from Danish, Black Willow Press, 1982, with Pamela Espeland, illustrations by D.M. Robinson) ;Books for young children * ''Ostrich and Lark'' (Boyds Mills Press, 2012, illustrated by San artists of the Kuru Art Project of Botswana, ) * ''Snook Alone'' (Candlewick Press, 2010, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, ) * ''Beautiful Ballerina'' (Scholastic Press, 2009, photographs by Susan Kuklin, ) * ''The Cat Walked Through the Casserole'' (Carolrhoda Books, 1984) ;In Anthology * ''Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology'' (University of Georgia Press, 2018)

Honors and awards

Kent fellowship, 1976; National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, 1981, 1990; Connecticut Arts Award, 1990; National Book Award finalist for poetry, 1991; Annisfield-Wolf Award, 1992; Fulbright teaching fellowship, 1995; National Book Award finalist for poetry, 1997; Poets' Prize, 1999, for ''The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems''; Contemplative Practices fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 2000; named Poet Laureate for the State of Connecticut, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, 2001; J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, 2001; Boston Globe/Horn Book Award and National Book Award finalist in young-people's literature category, both 2001, and Coretta Scott King Honor Book designation, Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for Nonfiction, and Newbery Honor designation, all 2002, all for ''Carver: A Life in Poems''; Coretta Scott King Book Award, 2005, for ''Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem''; two Pushcart prizes; Michael L. Printz Award honor book designation, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award honor book designation, and Coretta Scott King Honor Award, all 2006, all for ''A Wreath for Emmett Till''; Lifetime Achievement honor, Connecticut Book Awards, 2006, NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, 2017. In 2019, she was awarded the

, and noted for being "a renowned poet, author, and translator who has worked steadily throughout her career to highlight topics that aren’t often talked about in poetry. Her literary work, spanning more than four decades, examines complex issues around race, feminism, and the ongoing trauma of slavery in American life in narratives poised between song and speech."

References

External links