Biography of Jean Valentine
Jean Valentine (April 27, 1934 – December 29, 2020) was an American poet and the New York State Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010. Her poetry collection, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003, was awarded the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry.Biography
Jean Valentine was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 27, 1934. Her father was a Navy man. She received a bachelor of arts degree and a master of arts degree from Radcliffe College, and lived most of her life in New York City, where she died on December 29, 2020.
Her most recent book, Shirt In Heaven, was published in 2015. Before that, Break the Glass, published in 2010, was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.Valentine's first book, Dream Barker (Yale University Press, 1965), was chosen in 1964 for the Yale Series of Younger Poets and won the competition the following year. She published poems widely in literary journals and magazines, including The New Yorker, and Harper's Magazine, and The American Poetry Review. Valentine was one of five poets, including Charles Wright, Russell Edson, James Tate and Louise Glück, whose work Lee Upton considered critically in The Muse of Abandonment: Origin, Identity, Mastery in Five American Poets (Bucknell University Press, 1998). She held residencies from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Ucross, and the Lannan foundation, among others.
She taught with the Graduate Writing Program at New York University, at Columbia University, at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, and at Sarah Lawrence College. She was a faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.She was Distinguished Poet-in-Residence for Drew University’s MFA in Poetry & Poetry in Translation.She was married to the late American historian James Chace from 1957–1968, and they are survived by two daughters, Sarah and Rebecca.Valentine died in Manhattan on December 29, 2020.
Published works
Full-length poetry collectionsShirt in Heaven (2015, Copper Canyon Press)
Break the Glass (2010, Copper Canyon Press)
Little Boat (2007, Wesleyan University Press)
Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003 (2004, Wesleyan University Press) —winner of the National Book Award
The Cradle of the Real Life (2000, Wesleyan University Press)
Growing Darkness, Growing Light (1997, Carnegie Mellon University Press)
The Under Voice: Selected Poems (1995, Salmon Publishing)
The River at Wolf (1992, Alice James Books)
Night Lake (1992, Press of Appletree Alley: limited edition of 150, hand-bound, illustrated by Linda Plotkin.)
Home Deep Blue: New and Selected Poems (1989, Alice James Books)
The Messenger (1979, Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Ordinary Things (1974, Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Pilgrims (1969, Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Dream Barker, and Other Poems (1965, Yale University Press)Anthology publicationsLeaving New York: Writers Look Back (Hungry Mind Press, 1995)Anthologies editedThe Lighthouse Keeper: Essays on the Poetry of Eleanor Ross Taylor (Hobart & William Smith, 2001).
Awards and honors
2004 National Book Award for Poetry (for Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003)
1999 Shelley Memorial Award
1991 Maurice English Poetry Award
1988 Beatrice Hawley Award (for Home Deep Blue: New and Selected Poems)
1976 Guggenheim Fellowship
1972 National Endowment for the Arts – Literature Fellowship in Poetry
1965 Yale Series of Younger Poets
References
Bibliography
Publishers Weekly Review of Door in the Mountain by Reed Business Information (Accessed via the Seattle Public Library and Syndetic Solutions, Inc.)
Weiner, Tim. "James Chace, Foreign Policy Thinker, Is Dead at 72". The New York Times (Late East Coast edition), October 11, 2004, p. B.7. (Accessed via ProQuest, Document ID 710384891)
External links
Jean Valentine website
Video: Poetry Reading: Jean Valentine
Poetry Society of America: Crossroads > A Conversation with Jean Valentine > by Eve Grubin
Jean Valentine Papers Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
Audio: Jean Valentine Reading for WNYC Radio
The American Poetry Review > Jan/Feb 2005 Vol. 34/No. 1 > Jean Valentine
Library of Congress Online Catalog
Author Website > Jean Valentine: Books/Bio
Author Website > Jean Valentine C.V.
The New York Times > A Poet in Yonkers > by Hershenson, Roberta > Nov. 28, 2004, section 14WC, p. 13
Academy of American Poets > Jean Valentine
Novel Guide
Write your comment about Jean Valentine
Joan Sidney: Jean was a great poet, an incredibly caring human being, and a wonderful teacher. Her passing is a great loss to all of us. I met her in 2012 at the Artist’s Colony.
