Olga Broumas (born 6 May 1949, Hermoupolis) is a Greek poet, resident in the United States. She has been Poet-in-Residence and Director of Creative Writing at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pr ...

since 1995.

Biography

Born and raised on the island of

Syros Syros ( el, Σύρος ), also known as Siros or Syra, is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is south-east of Athens. The area of the island is and it has 21,507 inhabitants (2011 census). The largest towns are Ermoupoli, ...

, Broumas secured a fellowship through the

Fulbright program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to study in the United States at the

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

. There, she earned her bachelor's degree in architecture. She later went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. After earning this degree, Broumas co-founded and taught at Freehand, Inc., a school in

Provincetown Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...

, Massachusetts for female writers and artists. The school disbanded in 1987. Broumas has worked in the creative writing programs at several universities, including the University of Idaho and Goddard College. She currently is the Professor Emerita of the Practice of English at Brandeis University.

Works and honours

Her first collection of poems, ''Beginning with O'', was considered groundbreaking in its depiction of explicit lesbian sexuality.GLBTQ encyclopedia : Olga Broumas
Broumas was selected by

Stanley Kunitz Stanley Jasspon Kunitz (; July 29, 1905May 14, 2006) was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000. Biography Kunitz was born in Worcester, Massac ...

for the

Yale Younger Poets Series 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 ...

New York Times, THE GUIDE by Eleanor Charles, January 30, 2000
/ref> in 1977, the first non-native speaker of English to receive this award. Other honors have included a

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 ...

and a fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Bibliography

Collections

*''Beginning with O'' (Yale, 1977). *''Soie Sauvage'' (

Copper Canyon Press Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, founded in 1972 specializing exclusively in the publication of poetry. It is located in Port Townsend, Washington. Copper Canyon Press publishes new collections of poetry by both popu ...

, 1979). *''Pastoral Jazz'' (Copper Canyon Press, 1983). *With

Jane Miller Jane Miller (born 1949) is an American poet. Life Jane Miller was born in New York and lives in Tucson, Arizona. She served as a professor for many years in the Creative Writing Program at The University of Arizona—including a stint as its Dire ...

: ''Black Holes, Black Stockings'' (Wesleyan, 1985). *''Perpetua'' (Copper Canyon Press, 1989). *With T. Begley: '' Sappho’s Gymnasium'' (Copper Canyon Press, 1994). *''Rave: Poems, 1975-1999'' (Copper Canyon Press, 1999).

Translations

*''What I Love'': Selected Poems by Odysseas Elytis (Copper Canyon Press, 1986). *''The Little Mariner'' by Odysseas Elytis (Copper Canyon Press, 1988). *''Eros, Eros, Eros'': Selected and Last Poems by Odysseas Elytis (Copper Canyon Press,1998).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broumas, Olga 1949 births Living people 20th-century Greek poets Brandeis University faculty Greek women writers American lesbian writers Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry winners LGBT writers from Greece People from Ermoupoli Greek expatriates in the United States American LGBT poets University of Oregon alumni American women poets Greek women poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers Lesbian academics