Louise Elisabeth Glück ( ; April 22, 1943 – October 13, 2023) was an American poet and essayist. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose judges praised "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal". Her other awards include the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) 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. ...

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Bollingen Prize. From 2003 to 2004, she was Poet Laureate of the United States. Glück was born in New York City and raised on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. She began to suffer from

anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by Calorie restriction, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. Individuals wit ...

while in high school and later overcame the illness. She attended

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

but did not obtain a degree. In addition to being an author, she taught poetry at several academic institutions. Glück is often described as an autobiographical poet; her work is known for its emotional intensity and for frequently drawing on

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

or nature imagery to meditate on personal experiences and modern life. Thematically, her poems have illuminated aspects of trauma, desire, and nature. In doing so, they have become known for frank expressions of sadness and isolation. Scholars have also focused on her construction of poetic personas and the relationship, in her poems, between autobiography and classical myth. Glück served as the Frederick Iseman Professor in the Practice of Poetry at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and as a professor of English at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. She split her time between

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

;

Montpelier, Vermont Montpelier is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat of Washington County, Vermont, Washington County. The site of Government of Vermont, Vermont's state government, it is the Lis ...

; and

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

Biography

Early life

Louise Glück was born in New York City on April 22, 1943. She was the elder of two surviving daughters of Daniel Glück, a businessman, and Beatrice Glück (née Grosby), a homemaker. Glück's mother was of Russian Jewish descent. Her paternal grandparents, Terézia (née Moskovitz) and Henrik Glück, were

Hungarian Jews The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived ...

from Érmihályfalva,

Bihar County Bihar was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary and a county of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711), Principality of Transylvania (since the 16th c ...

, in what was then the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

(present-day Romania); her grandfather ran a timber company called "Feldmann és Glück". They emigrated to the United States in December 1900 and eventually owned a grocery store in New York. Glück's father, who was born in the United States, had an ambition to become a writer, but went into business with his brother-in-law. Together, they achieved success when they invented the X-Acto knife. Glück's mother was a graduate of

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

. In her childhood, Glück's parents taught her

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

and classic stories such as the life of

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

. She began to write poetry at an early age. As a teenager, Glück developed

, which became the defining challenge of her late teenage and young adult years. She described the illness, in one essay, as the result of an effort to assert her independence from her mother. Elsewhere, she connected her illness to the death of an elder sister, an event that occurred before she was born. During the fall of her senior year at George W. Hewlett High School, in

Hewlett, New York Hewlett is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 6,819 at the 2010 census. Hewlett is usually included as one of the Five Towns i ...

, she began psychoanalytic treatment. A few months later, she was taken out of school in order to focus on her rehabilitation, although she still graduated in 1961. Of that decision, she wrote, "I understood that at some point I was going to die. What I knew more vividly, more viscerally, was that I did not want to die". She spent the next seven years in therapy, which she credited with helping her to overcome the illness and teaching her how to think. As a result of her condition, Glück did not enroll in college as a full-time student. She described her decision to forgo higher education in favor of therapy as necessary: "… my emotional condition, my extreme rigidity of behavior and frantic dependence on ritual made other forms of education impossible". Instead, she took a poetry class at Sarah Lawrence College and, from 1963 to 1966, she enrolled in poetry workshops at

's School of General Studies, which offered courses for non-degree students. While there, she studied with Léonie Adams and Stanley Kunitz. She credited these teachers as significant mentors in her development as a poet.

Career

While attending poetry workshops, Glück began to publish her poems. Her first publication was in '' Mademoiselle'', followed soon after by poems in ''

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'', and other venues. After leaving Columbia, Glück supported herself with secretarial work. She married Charles Hertz Jr. in 1967. In 1968, Glück published her first collection of poems, ''Firstborn'', which received some positive critical attention. In a review, the poet Robert Hass described the book as "hard, artful, and full of pain". However, reflecting on it in 2003, the critic

Stephanie Burt Stephanie Burt (formerly published as Stephen Burt) is a literary critic and poet who is the Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at Harvard University. ''The New York Times'' has called her "one of the most influential poetry cr ...

said the collection "revealed a forceful but clotted poet, an anxious imitator of

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...

and

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

". Following the publication, Glück experienced a prolonged case of

writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...

, which was not cured, she said, until 1971, when she began to teach poetry at

Goddard College Goddard College was a Private college, private college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle. The college offered undergraduate and graduate degree programs. With predecessor ins ...

in Vermont. The poems she wrote during this time were collected in her second book, ''The House on Marshland'' (1975), which many critics have regarded as her breakthrough work, signaling her "discovery of a distinctive voice". In 1973, Glück gave birth to a son, Noah, with her partner, Keith Monley, who helped raise him for the first two years of his life. Her marriage to Charles Hertz, Jr. had ended in divorce, and in 1977 she married John Dranow, an author who had started the summer writing program at Goddard College. In 1980, Dranow and Francis Voigt, the husband of poet Ellen Bryant Voigt, co-founded the New England Culinary Institute as a private, for-profit college. Glück and Bryant Voigt were early investors in the institute and served on its board of directors. In 1980, Glück's third collection, ''Descending Figure'', was published. It received some criticism for its tone and subject matter: for example, the poet Greg Kuzma accused Glück of being a "child hater" for her now anthologized poem, "The Drowned Children". On the whole, however, the book was well received. In '' The American Poetry Review'', Mary Kinzie praised the book's illumination of "deprived, harmed, stammering beings". Writing in ''Poetry'', the poet and critic J. D. McClatchy said the book was "a considerable advance on Glück's previous work" and "one of the year's outstanding books". That same year, a fire destroyed Glück's house in Vermont, resulting in the loss of most of her possessions. In the wake of that tragedy, Glück began to write the poems that would later be collected in her award-winning work, '' The Triumph of Achilles'' (1985). Writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', the author and critic Liz Rosenberg described the collection as "clearer, purer, and sharper" than Glück's previous work. The critic Peter Stitt, writing in ''

The Georgia Review ''The Georgia Review'' is a literary journal based in Athens, Georgia. Founded at University of Georgia in 1947, the journal features poetry, fiction, essays, book reviews, and visual art. The journal has won National Magazine Awards for Ficti ...

'', declared that the book showed Glück to be "among the important poets of our age". From the collection, the poem "Mock Orange", which has been likened to a feminist anthem, has been called an "anthology piece" because of its frequent inclusion in poetry anthologies and college courses. In 1984, Glück joined the faculty of

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

in Massachusetts as a senior lecturer in the English Department. The following year, her father died. The loss prompted her to begin a new collection of poems, ''Ararat'' (1990), the title of which references the mountain of the

Genesis flood narrative The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is a Hebrew flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microcosm of Noah's ark. The B ...

. Writing in ''The New York Times'' in 2012, the critic

Dwight Garner Dwight Garner (born January 8, 1965) is an American journalist and longtime writer and editor for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, he was named a book critic for the newspaper. He is the author of ''Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany'' and ...

called it "the most brutal and sorrow-filled book of American poetry published in the last 25 years". Glück followed this collection with one of her most popular and critically acclaimed books, '' The Wild Iris'' (1992), which features garden flowers in conversation with a gardener and a deity about the nature of life. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' proclaimed it an "important book" that showcased "poetry of great beauty". The critic Elizabeth Lund, writing in ''The'' ''

Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper b ...

'', called it "a milestone work". It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, cementing Glück's reputation as a preeminent American poet. While the 1990s brought Glück literary success, it was also a period of personal hardship. Her marriage to John Dranow ended in divorce in 1996, the difficult nature of which affected their business relationship, resulting in Dranow's removal from his positions at the New England Culinary Institute. Glück channeled her experience into her writing, entering a prolific period of her career. In 1994, she published a collection of essays called ''Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry''. She then produced ''Meadowlands'' (1996), a collection of poetry about the nature of love and the deterioration of a marriage. She followed it with two more collections: ''Vita Nova'' (1999) and ''The Seven Ages'' (2001). In 2004, in response to the

terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Hijackers in the September 11 attacks#Hijackers, Nineteen terrorists hijacked four com ...

, Glück published a

chapbook A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

entitled ''October''. Consisting of one poem divided into six parts, it draws on ancient Greek myth to explore aspects of trauma and suffering. That same year, she was named the Rosenkranz Writer in Residence at Yale University. After joining the faculty of Yale, Glück continued to publish poetry. Her books published during this period include ''Averno'' (2006), ''A Village Life'' (2009), and '' Faithful and Virtuous Night'' (2014). In 2012, the publication of a collection of a half-century's worth of her poems, entitled ''Poems: 1962–2012'', was called "a literary event". Another collection of her essays, entitled ''American Originality'', appeared in 2017. In October 2020, Glück was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the sixteenth female literature laureate since the prize was founded in 1901. Due to restrictions caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, she received her prize at her home. In her Nobel lecture, which was delivered in writing, she highlighted her early engagement with poetry by

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

and

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, Massac ...

in discussing the relationship between poets, readers, and the wider public. In 2021, Glück's collection, ''Winter Recipes from the Collective'', was published. In 2022, she was named the Frederick Iseman Professor in the Practice of Poetry at Yale. In 2023, she was appointed a professor of English at Stanford University, where she taught in the Creative Writing Program.

Personal life

Glück's elder sister died young before Glück was born. Her younger sister, Tereze (1945–2018), worked at

Citibank Citibank, N.A. ("N. A." stands for "National bank (United States), National Association"; stylized as citibank) is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of Citigroup, a financial services multinational corporation, multinational corporation. Ci ...

as a vice president and was also a writer, winning the Iowa Short Fiction Award in 1995 for her book, ''May You Live in Interesting Times''. Glück's niece is the actress Abigail Savage. She remained a close confidant and friend to Vermont novelist Kathryn Davis throughout her life. The two often corresponded to share their developing works, seeking creative advice throughout their lengthy friendship and writing careers. Glück died from cancer at home in

, on October 13, 2023, at age 80.

Work

Glück's work has been the subject of academic study. Her papers, including manuscripts, correspondence, and other materials, are housed at 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 and ...

at Yale University.

Form

Glück is best known for lyric poems of linguistic precision and dark tone. The poet Craig Morgan Teicher has described her as a writer for whom "words are always scarce, hard won, and not to be wasted". The scholar Laura Quinney has argued that her careful use of words put Glück into "the line of American poets who value fierce lyric compression", from

to Elizabeth Bishop. Glück's poems shifted in form throughout her career, beginning with short, terse lyrics composed of compact lines and expanding into connected book-length sequences. Her work is not known for poetic techniques such as rhyme or alliteration. Rather, the poet Robert Hahn has called her style "radically inconspicuous" or "virtually an absence of style", relying on a voice that blends "portentous intonations" with a conversational approach. Among scholars and reviewers, there has been discussion as to whether Glück is a confessional poet, owing to the prevalence of the first-person mode in her poems and their intimate subject matter, often inspired by events in Glück's personal life. The scholar Robert Baker has argued that Glück "is surely a confessional poet in some basic sense", while the critic Michael Robbins has argued that Glück's poetry, unlike that of confessional poets

or John Berryman, "depends upon the fiction of privacy". In other words, she cannot be a confessional poet, Robbins argues, if she does not address an audience. Going further, Quinney argues that, to Glück, the confessional poem is "odious". Others have noted that Glück's poems can be viewed as autobiographical, while her technique of inhabiting various personas, ranging from ancient Greek gods to garden flowers, renders her poems more than mere confessions. As the scholar Helen Vendler has noted: "In their obliquity and reserve, lück's poemsoffer an alternative to first-person 'confession', while remaining indisputably personal".

Themes

While Glück's work is thematically diverse, scholars and critics have identified several themes that are paramount. Most prominently, Glück's poetry can be said to focus on trauma, as she wrote throughout her career about death, loss, suffering, failed relationships, and attempts at healing and renewal. The scholar Daniel Morris notes that even a Glück poem that uses traditionally happy or idyllic imagery "suggests the author's awareness of mortality, of the loss of innocence". The scholar Joanne Feit Diehl echoes this notion when she argues that "this 'sense of an ending' … infuses Glück's poems with their retrospective power", pointing to her transformation of common objects, such as a baby stroller, into representations of loneliness and loss. Yet, for Glück, trauma was arguably a gateway to a greater appreciation of life, a concept explored in ''The Triumph of Achilles''. The triumph to which the title alludes is Achilles' acceptance of mortality—which enables him to become a more fully realized human being. Another of Glück's common themes is desire. Glück wrote directly about many forms of desire—for example, the desire for love or insight—but her approach is marked by ambivalence. Morris argues that Glück's poems, which often adopt contradictory points of view, reflect "her own ambivalent relationship to status, power, morality, gender, and, most of all, language". The author Robert Boyer has characterized Glück's ambivalence as a result of "strenuous self-interrogation". He argues that "Glück's poems at their best have always moved between recoil and affirmation, sensuous immediacy and reflection … for a poet who can often seem earthbound and defiantly unillusioned, she has been powerfully responsive to the lure of the daily miracle and the sudden upsurge of overmastering emotion". The tension between competing desires in Glück's work manifests both in her assumption of different personas from poem to poem and in her varied approach to each collection of her poems. This led the poet and scholar James Longenbach to declare that "change is Louise Glück's highest value" and "if change is what she most craves, it is also what she most resists, what is most difficult for her, most hard-won". Another of Glück's preoccupations was nature, the setting for many of her poems. In ''The Wild Iris'', the poems take place in a garden where flowers have intelligent, emotive voices. However, Morris points out that ''The House on Marshland'' is also concerned with nature and can be read as a revision of the Romantic tradition of nature poetry. In ''Ararat'', too, "flowers become a language of mourning", useful for both commemoration and competition among mourners to determine the "ownership of nature as a meaningful system of symbolism". Thus, in Glück's work nature is both something to be regarded critically and embraced. The author and critic Alan Williamson has said it can also sometimes suggest the divine, as when, in the poem "Celestial Music", the speaker states that "when you love the world you hear celestial music", or when, in "The Wild Iris", the deity speaks through changes in weather. Glück's poetry is also notable for what it avoids. Morris argues that

Influences

Glück pointed to the influence of

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

on her work, as well as her early learning in ancient legends, parables, and mythology. In addition, she credited the influence of Léonie Adams and Stanley Kunitz. Scholars and critics have pointed to the literary influence on her work of

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...

, and

, among others.

Honors

Glück received numerous honors for her work. Below are honors she received for both her body of work and individual works.

Honors for body of work

* Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1967) * National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1970) * Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts (1975) * National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1979) * American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature (1981) * Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts (1987) * National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1988) * Honorary Doctorate,

(1993) *

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, Elected Member (1993) * Vermont State Poet (1994–1998) * Honorary Doctorate,

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a Private school, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,700 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Scien ...

(1995) * Honorary Doctorate,

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

(1996) *

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

, Elected Member (1996) * Lannan Literary Award (1999) * School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences 50th Anniversary Medal,

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

(2001) * Bollingen Prize (2001) * Poet Laureate of the United States (2003–2004) * Wallace Stevens Award of the Academy of American Poets (2008) * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry (2010) *

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

, Elected Member (2012) *

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

, Elected Member (2014) * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry (2015) * National Humanities Medal (2015) * Tranströmer Prize (2020) * Nobel Prize in Literature (2020) *Honorary Doctorate,

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

(2021)

Honors for individual works

* Melville Cane Award for ''The Triumph of Achilles'' (1985) * National Book Critics Circle Award for ''The Triumph of Achilles'' (1985) * Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry for ''Ararat'' (1992) * William Carlos Williams Award for ''The Wild Iris'' (1993) * Pulitzer Prize for ''The Wild Iris'' (1993) * PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction for ''Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry'' (1995) * Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union for ''Vita Nova'' (2000) * Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union for ''Averno'' (2007) * L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for ''Averno'' (2007) *

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), his ...

for ''Poems 1962–2012'' (2012) * National Book Award for ''Faithful and Virtuous Night'' (2014) In addition, ''The Wild Iris'', ''Vita Nova'', and ''Averno'' were all finalists for the National Book Award. ''The Seven Ages'' was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. ''A Village Life'' was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Griffin International Poetry Prize. Glück's poems have been widely anthologized, including in the ''Norton Anthology of Poetry'', the ''Oxford Book of American Poetry'', and the ''Columbia Anthology of American Poetry''.

Elected or invited posts

In 1999, Glück, along with the poets Rita Dove and W. S. Merwin, was asked to serve as a special consultant to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

for that institution's bicentennial. In this capacity, she helped the Library of Congress to determine programming to mark its 200th anniversary celebration. In 1999, she was also elected a Chancellor of th
Academy of American Poets
a post she held until 2005. In 2003, she was appointed the judge of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, a position she held until 2010. The Yale Series is the oldest annual literary competition in the United States, and during her time as judge, she selected for publication works by the poets Jay Hopler, Peter Streckfus, and Fady Joudah, among others. Glück was a visiting faculty member at many institutions, including

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Iowa Writers Workshop.

Selected bibliography

Poetry collections

* ''Firstborn''. The New American Library, 1968. * ''The House on Marshland''. The Ecco Press, 1975. * ''Descending Figure''. The Ecco Press, 1980. * '' The Triumph of Achilles''. The Ecco Press, 1985. * ''Ararat''. The Ecco Press, 1990. * '' The Wild Iris''. The Ecco Press, 1992. * ''Meadowlands (1997), Meadowlands''. The Ecco Press, 1997. * ''Vita Nova''. The Ecco Press, 1999. * ''The Seven Ages''. The Ecco Press, 2001. * ''Averno (poetry), Averno''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. * ''A Village Life''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. * ''Poems: 1962–2012''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. * '' Faithful and Virtuous Night''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. * ''Winter Recipes from the Collective''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.

Omnibus editions

* ''The First Four Books of Poems''. The Ecco Press, 1995. * ''The First Five Books of Poems''. Carcanet Press, 1997.

Chapbooks

* ''The Garden''. Antaeus Editions, 1976. * ''October''. Sarabande Books, 2004.

Essay collections

* ''Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry''. The Ecco Press, 1994. * ''American Originality: Essays on Poetry''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.

Fiction

* ''Marigold and Rose: A Fiction''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.

References

External links

Louise Glück
Online resources from the Library of Congress * hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.gluck, Louise Glück Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gluck, Louise 1943 births 2023 deaths American Nobel laureates American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets laureate American women poets Bollingen Prize recipients Boston University faculty Columbia University School of General Studies alumni Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts George W. Hewlett High School alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Jewish American poets Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters National Endowment for the Arts Fellows National Humanities Medal recipients Nobel laureates in Literature People from Hewlett, New York Poets from New York City Poets laureate of Vermont Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Sarah Lawrence College alumni The New Yorker people University of Iowa faculty Williams College faculty Women Nobel laureates Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts Yale University faculty Stanford University Department of English faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

Work

Form

Themes

Influences

Honors

Honors for body of work

Honors for individual works

Elected or invited posts

Selected bibliography

Poetry collections

Omnibus editions

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Essay collections

Fiction

See also

References

Further reading

External links