Elaine Equi (born 1953) is an

American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...

. Equi was born in Oak Park,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

and grew up in the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

area. Both her parents emigrated from Italy in the 1920s. Since 1988 she has lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

with her husband, poet Jerome Sala. She currently teaches

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

in the

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

programs at

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

and

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

. Widely published, her poems have appeared in ''Big Other'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', ''American Poetry Review'', and numerous volumes of ''

The Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the genera ...

''. In April 2007 Coffee House Press published ''Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems''. Also in 2007 she edited a special section for ''

Jacket Magazine ''Jacket'' was an online literary periodical founded by the Australian poet John Tranter, published from 1997-2010. The first issue was in October 1997. Until 2010, each new number of the magazine was posted at the website piece by piece unti ...

'': The Holiday Album: Greeting Card Poems For All Occasions.

Works

* ''Federal Woman'' (Danaides, 1978) * ''Shrewcrazy'' (Little Caeser, 1981) *''The Corners of the Mouth'' (Iridescence, 1986) * ''Accessories'' (Figures, 1988) * ''Views Without Rooms'' (Hanuman Books, 1989) * ''Surface Tension'' (Coffee House, 1989) * ''Decoy'' (Coffee House, 1994) * ''Friendship with Things'' (Figures, 1998) * ''Voice-Over'' (Coffee House, 1999) * ''The Cloud of Knowable Things'' (Coffee House, 2003) * ''Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems'' (Coffee House, 2007)(shortlisted for the 2008 International

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is a Canadian poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, two separate awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. I ...

) * ''Click and Clone'' (Coffee House, 2011) * ''Sentences and Rain'' (Coffee House, 2015) * ''The Intangibles'' (Coffee House, 2019)

Resources

External links

PennSound PennSound is a poetry website and online archive that hosts free and downloadable recordings of poets reading their own work. The website offers over 1500 full-length and single-poem recordings, the largest collection of poetry sound-files on the ...

br>author page
*

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outrea ...

br>author page
Poetry
Bent Orbit
at

National Poetry Month
at The Academy of American Poets

at Conjunctions

at Coconut

at MiPoesias

at The Cortland Review

Out of the Cloud Chamber

at Lacanian Ink

a

The Figures
PoemMemoirStory
Griffin Poetry Prize biographyGriffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip
Prose
essay at [http://www.conjunctions.com/ Conjunctions
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927234948/http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/tributes/ohara">Conjunctions">essay a
Conjunctionsessay (scroll down) a
[http://www.mipoesias.com/ MiPoesias
*[http://jacketmagazine.com/25/equi-rusch">MiPoesias
MiPoesiasEd Ruscha
's “word art” and other minimalist poetic forms. From [http://www.jacketmagazine.com Jacket Magazine
* [http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/mss_204/ Elaine Equi and Jerome Sala Papers">Jacket Magazine">Ed Ruscha
's “word art” and other minimalist poetic forms. Fro
Jacket Magazine

Elaine Equi and Jerome Sala Papers
at Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University Special Collections 1953 births
Living people
American women poets Poets from Illinois City College of New York alumni 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women {{US-poet-1950s-stub