Elaine Feinstein
Encyclopedia
Elaine Feinstein is a poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, biographer and translator.
Feinstein excelled at school work from this point but stopped writing poetry. She was educated at Newnham College, University of Cambridge
, a contemporary of Hughes and Plath. She lectured at a training college and then at the University of Essex (1967–70), appointed by Donald Davie. She read for the bar, worked as a university lecturer, a subeditor, and a freelance journalist.
Feinstein married and had three sons. She describes this as "a particularly bleak time of life" in which her senses felt dulled and she resented domesticity. As she started writing again she "came to life again", keeping journals, enjoying the process of reading and writing poetry, composing pieces to help her make sense of experience.Couzyn (1985) p115 She comments that she wanted "plain propositions, lines that came singing out of poems with a perfection of phrasing like lines of music".She became inspired by the poetry of Marina Tsvetayeva and to her translations (1971) were published by Oxford University Press and Penguin, and she received three translation awards from the Arts Council. She went on to write novels under Tsvetayeva's influence.
Since 1980, when she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
, she has lived as a full-time writer. In 1990 she received a Cholmondeley Award
for Poetry and was given an Honorary D.Litt from the University of Leicester
. "Alive to her family origins in the Russian-Jewish daspora, she developed a close affinity with the Russian poets of this and the last century." She has written fourteen novels, many radio plays, television dramas and five biographies, including A Captive Lion: the Life of Marina Tsvetaeva (1987) and Pushkin (1998). Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet (2001) was shortlisted for the biennial Marsh Biography Prize. Her biography of Anna Akhmatova
, Anna of all the Russias, was published in 2005.
Feinstein's poetry is influenced by The Black Mountain poets
, as well as Objectivists
and Projectivists
, including Charles Reznikoff
. Charles Olson
sent her his 'famous letter defining breath 'prosody
'. Feinstein has travelled extensively, to read her work at festivals across the world, and as Writer in Residence for the British Council, first in Singapore, and then in Tromsø, Norway. She was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at Bellagio in 1998. Her poems have been widely anthologised. Her Collected Poems and Translations (2002) was a Poetry Book Society
Special Commendation. She has served as a judge for the Gregory Awards, the Independent Foreign Fiction Award, the Costa Poetry Prize and the Rossica Award for Literature translated from Russian, and in 1995 was chairman of the judges for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Feinstein participated in the 22nd Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in November 2010.
Biography
Born in Bootle, Liverpool, Feinstein grew up in Lancashire. Her father had left school at 12 and had little time for books, but was a great storyteller. He put his faith in hard work, running a small business through the 1930s. She writes "An inner certainty of being loved and valued went a long way to create my own sense of resilience in later years spent in a world that felt altogether alien. I never altogether lost my childhood sense of being fortunate.Couzyn (1985) p114 Feinstein was sent to Wyggeston School by her mother "a school as good as Leicester could provide". As a pupil she felt constrained and restless, uneasy with teachers' discipline. During the war a refugee girl from Germany came to stay with the family for seven years. At the end of the war Feinstein's sense of childhood security, anchored by her family, was shattered by the revelations of the Nazi extermination camps. She notes "In that year I became Jewish for the first time".Feinstein excelled at school work from this point but stopped writing poetry. She was educated at Newnham College, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, a contemporary of Hughes and Plath. She lectured at a training college and then at the University of Essex (1967–70), appointed by Donald Davie. She read for the bar, worked as a university lecturer, a subeditor, and a freelance journalist.
Feinstein married and had three sons. She describes this as "a particularly bleak time of life" in which her senses felt dulled and she resented domesticity. As she started writing again she "came to life again", keeping journals, enjoying the process of reading and writing poetry, composing pieces to help her make sense of experience.Couzyn (1985) p115 She comments that she wanted "plain propositions, lines that came singing out of poems with a perfection of phrasing like lines of music".She became inspired by the poetry of Marina Tsvetayeva and to her translations (1971) were published by Oxford University Press and Penguin, and she received three translation awards from the Arts Council. She went on to write novels under Tsvetayeva's influence.
Since 1980, when she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
, she has lived as a full-time writer. In 1990 she received a Cholmondeley Award
Cholmondeley Award
The Cholmondeley Award is an annual award for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966...
for Poetry and was given an Honorary D.Litt from the University of Leicester
University of Leicester
The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....
. "Alive to her family origins in the Russian-Jewish daspora, she developed a close affinity with the Russian poets of this and the last century." She has written fourteen novels, many radio plays, television dramas and five biographies, including A Captive Lion: the Life of Marina Tsvetaeva (1987) and Pushkin (1998). Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet (2001) was shortlisted for the biennial Marsh Biography Prize. Her biography of Anna Akhmatova
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko , better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova , was a Russian and Soviet modernist poet, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Russian canon.Harrington p11...
, Anna of all the Russias, was published in 2005.
Feinstein's poetry is influenced by The Black Mountain poets
Black Mountain poets
The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College.-Background:...
, as well as Objectivists
Objectivist poets
The Objectivist poets were a loose-knit group of second-generation Modernists who emerged in the 1930s. They were mainly American and were influenced by, amongst others, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams...
and Projectivists
Black Mountain poets
The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College.-Background:...
, including Charles Reznikoff
Charles Reznikoff
Charles Reznikoff was the poet for whom the term Objectivist was first coined. When asked by Harriet Munroe to provide an introduction to what became known as the Objectivist issue of Poetry, Louis Zukofsky provided his essay Sincerity and Objectification: With Special Reference to the Work of...
. Charles Olson
Charles Olson
Charles Olson , was a second generation American modernist poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance...
sent her his 'famous letter defining breath 'prosody
Prosody (linguistics)
In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance ; the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of...
'. Feinstein has travelled extensively, to read her work at festivals across the world, and as Writer in Residence for the British Council, first in Singapore, and then in Tromsø, Norway. She was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at Bellagio in 1998. Her poems have been widely anthologised. Her Collected Poems and Translations (2002) was a Poetry Book Society
Poetry Book Society
The Poetry Book Society was founded by T. S. Eliot and friends in 1953. Each quarter the Society selects one recently published collection of poetry for its members. The Society also publishes the quarterly poetry journal Bulletin, and it administers the competition for the annual T. S. Eliot Prize...
Special Commendation. She has served as a judge for the Gregory Awards, the Independent Foreign Fiction Award, the Costa Poetry Prize and the Rossica Award for Literature translated from Russian, and in 1995 was chairman of the judges for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Feinstein participated in the 22nd Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in November 2010.
Books
- Bessie Smith: Lives of Modern Women Series Penguin/Viking
- A Captive Lion: The Life of Marina Tsvetayeva Hutchinson, 1987
- Lawrence's Women HarperCollins, London, 1993;
- Lawrence and The Women, New York, 1993
- Pushkin Weidenfeld & Nicholson; Ecco, U.S, 1998
- The Russian Jerusalem
- Ted HughesTed HughesEdward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...
- The Life of a Poet Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2001 - Anna of all the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005; Knopf, 2006
Poetry collections
- The Selected Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva, Oxford University Press, 1961. Second edition, 1971. Third edition, Hutchinson, 1987
- In a Green Eye, London, Goliard Press, 1966
- Daylight (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, 1997) - The Magic Apple Tree, London, Hutchinson, 1971
- At the Edge, Sceptre Press, 1972
- The Celebrants and Other Poems, Hutchinson, 1973
- Three Russian Poets: Margarita AligerMargarita AligerMargarita Iosifovna Aliger was a famous Soviet poet, translator, and journalist.-Biography:She was born in Odessa in a family of Jewish office workers; the real family name was Zeliger . As a teenager she worked at a chemical plant...
, Yunna MoritsYunna MoritsYunna Morits , is a Soviet and Russian artist of many talents primarily known as a poet, was born in Kiev, USSR in a Jewish family. Her father Pinchas Moritz, was imprisoned under Stalin, she suffered from tuberculosis in her childhood, and spent years of hardship in the Urals during WWII...
, Bella Akhmadulina, Manchester: Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
,1976 - Some Unease and Angels, Hutchinson; 1977, reprinted, 1981
- Selected Poems, University Center, Michigan, Green River Press,1977
- The Feast of Eurydice, Faber & Faber/ Next Editions, 1980
- Badlands, Hutchinson, 1987
- City Music, Hutchinson, 1990
- Selected Poems (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, 1994) - Daylight (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
,1997) - After Pushkin (edited by Elaine Feinstein) (Folio Society & Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
,1999) - Gold (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, 2000) - Collected Poems and Translations (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, 2002) - Talking to the Dead (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, 2007) - Bride Of Ice: New Selected Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, 2009) - Cities (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, June 2010)
Novels
- The Circle London, Hutchinson (Penguin 1973)
- The Amberstone Exit, London, Hutchinson, (Penguin 1974); translated into Hebrew (Keter 1984)
- The Glass Alembic, as The Crystal Garden London, Hutchinson, (Penguin 1978); New York, Dutton, 1974
- Children of the Rose, London, Hutchinson; (Penguin 1976); translated into Hebrew, 1987
- The Ecstasy of Dr Miriam Garner, London, Hutchinson
- The Shadow Master, London, Hutchinson, 1978; New York, Simon & Schuster, 1979
- The Survivors, London, Hutchinson; New York, 1991
- The Border, London, Hutchinson; New York, 1985
- Mother's Girl, London, Hutchinson; shortlisted for 1990 Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize
- All You Need, London, Hutchinson; New York, 1991
- Loving Brecht, London, Hutchinson
- Dreamers, London, Macmillan
- Lady Chatterley's Confession, London, Macmillan, 1995
- Dark Inheritance, London, Women's Press
- The Russian Jerusalem, Manchester,
Radio plays
- 19801980 in literatureThe year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française....
: Echoes - 19811981 in literatureThe year 1981 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction given for the first time...
: A Late Spring - 19831983 in literatureThe year 1983 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Ironweed by William Kennedy is published.*Salvage for the Saint by Peter Bloxsom and John Kruse is published. This is the final book in a series of novels, novellas and short stories featuring the Leslie Charteris...
: A Day Off - 19851985 in literatureThe year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire*Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale*Jean M. Auel - The Mammoth Hunters*Iain Banks - Walking on Glass...
: Marina Tsvetayeva: A Life - 19871987 in literatureThe year 1987 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Wolfe was paid $5 million for the film rights to his novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, the most ever earned by an author, at the time.-Fiction:...
: If I Ever Get On My Feet Again - 19901990 in literatureThe year 1990 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*J. K. Rowling gets the idea for Harry Potter while on a train ride from Manchester to London. She says "I was staring out the window, and the idea for Harry just came. He appeared in my mind's eye, very fully formed...
: The Man in Her Life - 19931993 in literatureThe year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Professor Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of The Sunday Times....
: Foreign Girls, a trilogy - 19941994 in literatureThe year 1994 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Kevin J. Anderson - Champions of the Force, Dark Apprentice and Jedi Search*Reed Arvin - The Wind in the Wheat*Greg Bear - Songs of Earth and Power...
: A Winter Meeting - Lawrence's Women in Love (four-part adaptation)
- 19961996 in literatureThe year 1996 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is removed from an advanced placement English reading list in Lindale, Texas because it "conflicted with the values of the community."* In the United Kingdom, the first...
: Adaptation of novel, Lady Chatterley's Confession Book at Bedtime
Short story collections
- Matters of Chance, London, Covent Garden Press
- The Silent Areas, London, Hutchinson
Prizes and awards
- 1970: Arts Council Grant/Award for Translation
- 1971: Daisy Miller Prize
- 1979: Arts Council Grant/Award for Translation
- 1981: Arts Council Grant/Award for Translation
- 1981: Fellow of the Royal Society of LiteratureRoyal Society of LiteratureThe Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
- 1990: Cholmondeley AwardCholmondeley AwardThe Cholmondeley Award is an annual award for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966...
- 1992: Society of Authors Travel Award
- 2004: Arts Council Award
Further reading
- Couzyn, Jeni. Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe. 1985
- Davie, Donald. Under Briggflatts: History of Poetry in Britain 1960-80, Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, 1989 - Lassner, Phyllis. Anglo-Jewish Women Writing the Holocaust: Displaced Witnesses, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010
- Lawson, Peter. Anglo-Jewish poetry from Isaac Rosenberg to Elaine Feinstein, Vallentine Mitchell & Co
- Schmidt, Michael. Lives of the Poets, Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 2007
External links
- Profile at Poetry Archive
- Contemporary writers
- Podcast interview with Elaine Feinstein at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival
- "Elaine Feinstein – Talking to the Dead" 7 May 2007. BBC (audio 9 min) "Elaine Feinstein" Tuesday 2 July 2002
- "She Means It When She Rhymes: Marina Tsvetaeva: Selected Poems." Review from Thumbscrew. No 17 - Winter 2000/1