Ellen Doré Watson is an American poet, translator and teacher.
Career
Watson is author of six collections of poems, most recently, ''pray me stay eager'' (
Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in New Gloucester, Maine.
History and mission
"Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA in 1973 by five women and two men: ...
). Her book, ''Ladder Music,'' was a New York/New England Award winner from
Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in New Gloucester, Maine.
History and mission
"Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA in 1973 by five women and two men: ...
. Other honors include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant and a 1997
Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.
Watson has translated eleven books, including ''The Alphabet in the Park: The Selected poems of
Adélia Prado'' (
Wesleyan University Press
Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist.
History and overview
Founded (in its present form ...
), for which she was awarded an NEA Translation Fellowship and interviewed by ''BOMB Magazine.'' In addition to her Brazilian Portuguese translations, the Winter 1999 issue of ''Modern Poetry in Translation'' features contemporary Palestinian poetry she co-translated from the Arabic with Saadi Simawe.
Her poems have appeared in literary journals, including ''
Orion Magazine
''Orion'' is an advertisement-free nonprofit quarterly magazine focused on nature, culture, and place addressing environmental and social issue
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common pr ...
,'' ''
Ploughshares
''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established 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 Bost ...
,'' ''
Boulevard
A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district.
In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...
,'' ''
The Cortland Review,'' ''
AGNI
Agni ( ) is the Deva (Hinduism), Hindu god of fire. As the Guardians of the directions#Aṣṭa-Dikpāla ("Guardians of Eight Directions"), guardian deity of the southeast direction, he is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples. ...
,'' ''
The American Poetry Review
''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizab ...
,'' ''
Tin House,'' and ''
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 ...
,'' and in anthologies including ''After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events '' (Santa Lucia Books, 2008), ''Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English,'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2000), and ''Never Before: Poems About First Experiences'' (
Four Way Books, 2005).
Watson grew up in
Plainview, New York
Plainview is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the town of Oyster Bay (town), New York, Oyster Bay in east central Nassau County, New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 27,100. The Plainv ...
, and received her B.A. and MFA from the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...
, and lives in
Conway, Massachusetts
Conway is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,761 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
English colonists first settled Conway in 1 ...
. She is the director of The Poetry Center at
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...
, and Lecturer in the English Department, where she teaches Reading Contemporary Poetry. She is a poetry editor for ''
The Massachusetts Review
''The Massachusetts Review'' is a literary quarterly founded in 1959 by a group of professors from Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It receives financial support from Five Colle ...
,'' and a member of the Alice James Books Cooperative Board.
Alice James Books > About Us > Board Members
Published works
Full-Length Poetry Collections
* ''pray me stay eager'' (Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in New Gloucester, Maine.
History and mission
"Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA in 1973 by five women and two men: ...
)
* ''Dogged Hearts'' (Tupelo Press
Tupelo Press is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1999. It produced its first titles in 2001, publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Originally located in Dorset, Vermont, the press has since moved to North Adams, Massachu ...
, 2010)
* ''This Sharpening'' (Tupelo Press
Tupelo Press is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1999. It produced its first titles in 2001, publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Originally located in Dorset, Vermont, the press has since moved to North Adams, Massachu ...
, 2006)
* ''Ladder Music'' (Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in New Gloucester, Maine.
History and mission
"Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA in 1973 by five women and two men: ...
, 2002)
* ''We Live in Bodies'' (Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in New Gloucester, Maine.
History and mission
"Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA in 1973 by five women and two men: ...
, 1997)
Chapbooks
* ''Broken Railings'' (Owl Creek Press, Winner of the Green Lake Chapbook Poetry Prize)
Selected Translations
* ''Zero,'' by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão (Dalkey Archive Press, 2003)
* ''The Alphabet in the Park: The Selected poems of Adélia Prado'' (Wesleyan University Press
Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist.
History and overview
Founded (in its present form ...
, 1990)
*''The Tree of the Seventh Heaven,'' by Milton Hatoum, Antheneum, 1994
*''High Art'', by Rubem Fonseca, Harper & Row, 1986
*''The Tower of Glass'', by Ivan Angelo, Avon Books, 1985
*''And Still the Earth'', by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, Avon Books, 1985
*"The Truth is a Seven-Headed Animal", by Milton Hatoum, ''Grand Street'', Spring 1998
*''The Mystical Rose: Selected Poems'', by Adélia Prado, Bloodaxe Books (U.K.), Nov. 2014
*''Ex-Voto: Poems,'' by Adélia Prado, Tupelo Press, September 2013
*''The Alphabet in the Park: Selected Poems of Adélia Prado,'' Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England, 1990; 2nd Edition 1994
*"Seductive Sadness Winks at Me" and "The Alphabet in the Park," by Adélia Prado, ''The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry'', FSG, 2011
*"Denouement," "Serenade," and "The Tenacious Devil Who Doesn't Exist," by Adélia Prado, ''The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry'', Ecco, 2010
*"The Transfer of the Body," ''The Literary Olympians: An International Anthology,'' Fox-Brown & Company, 1992
References
Sources
Tupelo Press
Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award
Orion Magazine
The Massachusetts Review
Ploughshares
Smith College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Ellen Dore
Poets from Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program for Poets & Writers alumni
Smith College faculty
Living people
Poets from New York (state)
American translators
The New Yorker people
American women poets
People from Plainview, New York
Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award winners
People from Conway, Massachusetts
Year of birth missing (living people)
American women academics
21st-century American women