Jane Hirshfield
Encyclopedia
Jane Hirshfield is an American poet.
in the school's first graduating class to include women. She later studied at the San Francisco Zen Center
, including three years of monastic practice at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
. She received lay ordination in Soto Zen in 1979.
Hirshfield has worked as a freelance writer, editor, and translator. Her seven books of poetry have each received numerous awards. Her fifth book, Given Sugar, Given Salt, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
and her sixth collection, After, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize (UK) and named a "best book of 2006" by The Washington Post
, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Financial Times
. She has written a book of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. The Ink Dark Moon, her co-translation of the work of the two foremost women poets of classical-era Japan, was instrumental in bringing tanka
(a 31-syllable Japanese poetic form predating the better known haiku
) to the attention of American poets. She has three edited books collecting the work of women poets.
Never a full time academic, Hirsfield has taught at the University of California, Berkeley
, University of San Francisco
, and as the Elliston Visiting Poet at the University of Cincinnati
. She has also taught at many writers conferences, including Bread Loaf
and The Napa Valley Writers Conference and has served as both core and associate faculty in the Bennington Master of Fine Arts Writing Seminars
. Hirshfield appears frequently in literary festivals both in America and abroad, including the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
, the National Book Festival
, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
, Poetry International
(London, UK), the China Poetry Festival (Xi'an, China), and the Second International Gathering of the Poets [Krakow, Poland]. She is also a contributing editor at The Alaska Quarterly Review
and Ploughshares
, a former guest editor of The Pushcart Prize Anthology and an advisory editor at Orion
and Tricycle
.
Hirshfield's work has been published in The New Yorker
, Atlantic Monthly, The Nation
, the Los Angeles Times
, the Times Literary Supplement, many literary journals, and multiple volumes of The Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize
anthologies. Her poems have frequently been read on various National Public Radio programs, and she was featured in two Bill Moyers
PBS television specials, The Sounds of Poetry and Fooling With Words.
Biography
Jane Hirshfield was born in New York City and received her bachelor's degree from Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in the school's first graduating class to include women. She later studied at the San Francisco Zen Center
San Francisco Zen Center
San Francisco Zen Center , is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising the City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu...
, including three years of monastic practice at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
-External links:*...
. She received lay ordination in Soto Zen in 1979.
Hirshfield has worked as a freelance writer, editor, and translator. Her seven books of poetry have each received numerous awards. Her fifth book, Given Sugar, Given Salt, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
and her sixth collection, After, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize (UK) and named a "best book of 2006" by The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
. She has written a book of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. The Ink Dark Moon, her co-translation of the work of the two foremost women poets of classical-era Japan, was instrumental in bringing tanka
Waka (poetry)
Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
(a 31-syllable Japanese poetic form predating the better known haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
) to the attention of American poets. She has three edited books collecting the work of women poets.
Never a full time academic, Hirsfield has taught at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
, and as the Elliston Visiting Poet at the University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....
. She has also taught at many writers conferences, including Bread Loaf
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is a writers' conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont...
and The Napa Valley Writers Conference and has served as both core and associate faculty in the Bennington Master of Fine Arts Writing Seminars
Bennington College
Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...
. Hirshfield appears frequently in literary festivals both in America and abroad, including the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
The biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America.-Background:The four-day celebrations of poetry have been called “poetry heaven” by the 1995–1997 US Poet Laureate Robert Hass, “a new Woodstock” by the Christian Science Monitor, and “Wordstock” by The...
, the National Book Festival
National Book Festival
The National Book Festival is an American event organized by the Library of Congress annually in Washington, D.C. Held in early autumn, the festival attracts tens of thousands of people each year . Over fifty nationally published authors, illustrators, and poets are invited for lectures,...
, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is a free, public festival celebrating the written word. Started in 1996, the Festival is held on the last weekend of April hosted by the University of Southern California and features vendors, authors and publishers...
, Poetry International
Poetry International
Poetry International is a literary journal published annually by San Diego State University Press that was established in 1997. The journal has since its 4th issue included a section focusing on poetry in translation from one nation. Poetry International is supported by a grant from the Edwin...
(London, UK), the China Poetry Festival (Xi'an, China), and the Second International Gathering of the Poets [Krakow, Poland]. She is also a contributing editor at The Alaska Quarterly Review
The Alaska Quarterly Review
The Alaska Quarterly Review is a biannual literary journal founded in 1980 by Ronald Spatz and James Liszka at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Ronald Spatz serves as editor-in-chief...
and Ploughshares
Ploughshares
Ploughshares is an American literary magazine founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in the heart of Boston...
, a former guest editor of The Pushcart Prize Anthology and an advisory editor at Orion
Orion (magazine)
Orion is a bimonthly, advertisement-free, magazine focused on nature, the environment, and culture, addressing environmental and societal issues....
and Tricycle
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review is an independent, nonsectarian Buddhist quarterly magazine established in 1991 by Helen Tworkov. Published by The Tricycle Foundation out of New York City, most issues have interviews with Buddhist teachers, articles or essays on Buddhism and contemporary issues, book...
.
Hirshfield's work has been published in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Atlantic Monthly, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, the Times Literary Supplement, many literary journals, and multiple volumes of The Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize
Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
anthologies. Her poems have frequently been read on various National Public Radio programs, and she was featured in two Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
PBS television specials, The Sounds of Poetry and Fooling With Words.
Poetry collections
- Come, Thief (Alfred A. Knopf, August, 2011)
- After (HarperCollins, 2006), (Bloodaxe Books UK, 2006)
- Each Happiness Ringed by Lions (Bloodaxe Books UK, 2005)
- Pebbles & Assays (Brooding Heron Press), 2004
- Given Sugar, Given Salt (HarperCollins, 2001), finalist for the National Book Critics Circle AwardNational Book Critics Circle AwardThe National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
- The Lives of the Heart (HarperCollins,1997), winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award
- The October Palace (HarperCollins, 1994), winner of the Poetry Center Book Award
- Of Gravity & Angels (HarperCollins, 1988), winner of the California Book Award in Poetry
- Alaya (Quarterly Review of Literature Poetry Series, 1982)
Edited and translated
- The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no KomachiOno no Komachiwas a famous Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen—the Six best Waka poets of the early Heian period. She was noted as a rare beauty; Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan. She also figures among the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals....
and Izumi ShikibuIzumi Shikibuwas a mid Heian period Japanese poet. She is a member of the . She was the contemporary of Murasaki Shikibu, and Akazome Emon at the court of Joto Mon'in.-Early life:...
, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan (with Mariko Aratani) (Vintage Classics, 1990) - Women in Praise of the Sacred: Forty-Three Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women (HarperCollins, 1994).
- Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems (with Robert BlyRobert BlyRobert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...
; Beacon Press, 2004) - The Heart of Haiku (Kindle Single, 2011)
Honors and awards
- The Poetry Center Book Award
- The California Book Award
- Fellowship, Guggenheim Foundation
- Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation,
- Fellowship, Academy of American Poets
- Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
- Columbia University's Translation Center Award
- Commonwealth Club of California Poetry Medal
- Bay Area Book Reviewers Award
- Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement from The Academy of American Poets (2004)
- Finalist, T. S. Eliot PrizeT. S. Eliot PrizeThe T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is awarded by the Poetry Book Society to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Prize was inaugurated in 1993 in celebration of the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday and in...
- Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award
External links
- Profile at Poetry Archive
- Profile at Poetry Foundation
- Profile at Academy of American Poets
- Hirshfield on Poetry Everywhere, reading For What Binds Us at the Geraldine R. Dodge festival (video; 2:17)
- Jane Hirshfield reading from new work at the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar (audio; 16:09)
- Jane Hirshfield's Web pages at the Steven Barclay Agency Web site
- Jane Hirshfield's poems at Slate
- Jane Hirshfield's poems in The New Yorker
- Jane Hirshfield's poems in The Atlantic
- Jane Hirshfield's essay, "Justice: Four Windows" in the Virginia Quarterly Review
- Best American Poetry interview on the publication of Come Thief, "A Conversation with Brian Bouldrey" Part 1] part 2 part 3
- "Letting What Enters Enter" at Salon magazine)
- "Human Lives: A conversation between Jane Hirshfield and Leslie McGrath, for VIDA
- Hirshfield interview on Voice of America, October, 2011