Ruth Fainlight

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(born 2 May 1931) is a U.S.-born poet, short story writer, translator and librettist based in the UK.

Life and career

Fainlight was born in New York, but has mainly lived in Britain since she was 15, having also spent some years living in France and Spain. She studied for two years at the Birmingham and

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Colleges of Art. In addition to her own works, Fainlight has also provided criticism for BBC Radio, '' The Times Literary Supplement'', '' The Guardian'' and numerous other publications. She was married to the British writer Alan Sillitoe (1928–2010) and has a son, David, who is a photographer for ''The Guardian'', and an adopted daughter, Susan. Fainlight lives in London. She has twice been Poet in Residence at Vanderbilt University,

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

, Tennessee, and was a close friend of Sylvia Plath in the years leading up to Plath's death.

Publications

Poetry collections

* ''Cages'', 1966. * ''To See the Matter Clearly'', 1968 from Macmillan UK; Dufour Editions, US * ''The Region's Violence'', 1973. * ''Another Full Moon'', 1976. * ''Sibyls and Others''. 1980. New edition, Poetry Book Society, 2007 * ''Fifteen to Infinity'', 1983. Also published 1987, Carnegie-Mellon University Press US * ''Selected Poems''. 1987. * ''The Knot'' 1990. from Hutchinson or CenturyHutchinson, UK * ''Climates''. Bloodaxe Books UK, 1983. * ''This Time of Year'', 1994. * ''Selected Poems''. Updated new edition, Sinclair-Stevenson UK, 1995. * ''Sugar-Paper Blue''. Bloodaxe Books UK, Dufour Editions US, 1997. **Shortlisted for 1998 Whitbread Poetry Prize * ''Burning Wire''. Bloodaxe Books UK, Dufour Editions US, 2002. * ''Moon Wheels''. Bloodaxe Books, 2006. Dufour Editions US, 2007. * ''New and Collected Poems''. Bloodaxe Books, 25 November 2010. * ''Somewhere Else Entirely''. Bloodaxe Books, 15 November 2018.

Books

* ''Sibyls''. Gehenna Press US, 1991, with woodcuts by Leonard Baskin. * ''Pomegranate''. Editions de l`Eau, Ceret, France, 1997, mezzotints by Judith Rothchild * ''Leaves/Feuilles'', Editions Verdigris, Octon, France, 1998. Bi-lingual, French/English, tr. M. Duclos; mezzotints by Judith Rothchild * ''Feathers'', Editions Verdigris, France, 2002. Mezzotints by Judith Rothchild * ''Sheba and Solomon''. Pratt Contemporary Art, UK, 2004. Drypoints by Ana Maria Pacheco

Short story collections

* ''Daylife and Nightlife''. London: André Deutsch, 1971. * ''Dr. Clock's Last Case''. London: Virago Press, 1994.

Translations

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature ...

, ''All Citizens Are Soldiers''. Macmillan UK, 1966. Tr. from Spanish (original title: ''Fuenteovejuna'') with Alan Sillitoe * ''Navigations'' 1983, Casa da Moeda, Portugal, and Marine Rose, 1987, Black Swan US, poems, from Portuguese of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen * Selection of poems by

Jean Joubert Jean Joubert (27 February 1928 – 28 November 2015) was a French novelist, short story writer, and poet. He won the 1978 Prix Mallarmé for ''Poems: 1955–1975''. He won the 1975 Prix Renaudot for ''L'Homme de sable''. Life Joubert was born in ...

, from French, included in ''Selected Poems'', 1995 *

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

, ''The Theban Trilogy'' 2009. Translated with Robert Littman, Johns Hopkins University Press, US

Poetry collections in translation

* ''La Verità sulla Sibilla'', 2003, translated from Italian. Alessandra Schiavinato and Paolo Ruffilli, published by Edizioni del Leone, Venice, Italy * ''Visitação'', 1995, edited by Ana Hatherly, Quetzal Editores, Lisbon, Portugal * ''Encore la Pleine Lune'', 1997, trans. M. Duclos & J. Joubert, Editions Federop, Eglise-Neuve d'Issac, France * ''Leaves/Feuilles'' 1998, trans. M. Duclos, Editions Verdigris, Octon, France * ''Bleu Papier-Sucre'', 2000, trans. M. Duclos, Les Amis de la Poésie, Bergerac, France * ''Plumas (Feathers)'' (in English and Spanish) published by Editorial El Tucan de Virginia, Mexico City, Mexico, 2005. * ''Poemas'' 2000, trans. B. Varela, L. Graves, M. Negroni, J. Capriata, M. Lauer Editorial Pequeña Venecia, Caracas, Venezuela * ''Autorul La Rampa'', 2007, tr. Lidia Vianu, Univers Enciclopedic, Bucharest, Romania * ''La Nueva Ciencia de los Materiales Fuertes'' (bi-lingual, English/Spanish) 2009, trans. M. Rosenberg & D. Samoilovich, Cosmopoetica, Cordoba, Spain

Poems in translation

The poem "Sugar-Paper Blue" was translated into Russian by Marina Boroditskaya and is published in the April 2003 issue of the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

monthly ''Inostrannaya Literatura'' (''Foreign Literature''). The poem sequence "Sheba and Solomon" has been translated into Russian by Marina Boroditskaya and published in Moscow in the literary magazine ''Novaya Younost'' in 2003.

Libretti

* ''The Dancer Hotoke'' 1991, composer Erika Fox (nominated for the 1992

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage o ...

Awards). * ''The European Story'' 1993, chamber opera, composer Geoffrey Alvarez (based on the poem of the same name). Both works above were commissioned by the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal ...

for their "Garden Venture" program in 1991 and 1993. * ''Bedlam Britannica'' September 1995.

Awards and honours

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

for Poetry, 1994 * Hawthornden Fellowship, 1987 * Fellow of

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

, 2007

Notes

External links

British Council biography
at Contemporary Writers
Profile and poems written and audio
at the Poetry Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Fainlight, Ruth 1931 births 20th-century American poets Living people Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Writers from New York City American expatriates in England American women poets American librettists Women opera librettists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American translators 21st-century American translators