Debra Weinstein (born 1961) is a
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
and the author of the novel ''Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z.'' (Random House, 2004). Her poems have appeared in ''The American Poetry Review'', ''The National Review'', ''Tikkun'', and ''The Portable Lower East Side''.
Education
Weinstein earned a BA in English literature and creative writing from the State University of New York at Binghamton and an MA in English literature from the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University, where she was the recipient of a Galway Kinnell Fellowship.
Recognition
Weinstein received New York University's Bobst Literary Award for Emerging Writers upon publication of her volume of poetry, ''Rodent Angel'' (NYU Press, 1996). She received a
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
Creative Writing Fellowship for poetry and a New York State Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Creative Writing Fellowship for Fiction. She has been in residence at both the
MacDowell Colony
MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDo ...
and
Yaddo
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...
.
Weinstein came to prominence as a poet in the 1990s, during the AIDS epidemic. She published her poems and stories in magazines and journals before the age of the Internet, and read her work at The Knitting Factory, CBGBs, and many other downtown venues. The poems in her first volume look back at a complex childhood in suburban Long Island toward a future where loss is mourned, love is celebrated, and a child is conceived from a union between two women. Her academic novel, Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z, takes an ironic, backward, fictional glance at a time when, after completing graduate school, she worked as an assistant to a dean at NYU's School of Education and assisted Sharon Olds as an administrator in the NYU Goldwater Creative Writing Program.
Works
Some of her works include ''Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z'' , and ''Rodent Angel''.
Personal life
She lives in New York City and has two children.
References
Maslin, Janet, Books of the Times: In the Garden of Verses, Revenge Grows Like a Weed
External links
1961 births
Living people
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American poets
21st-century American women writers
American women novelists
American women poets
Jewish American novelists
Jewish American poets
Jewish women writers
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