Eloise Klein Healy (born 1943) is an American

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 ...

. She has published five books of

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

and three

chapbooks A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

. Her collection of poems, ''Passing'', was a finalist for the 2003 Lambda Literary Awards in Poetry and the Audre Lorde Award from The Publishing Triangle. Healy has also received the Grand Prize of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival and has received six

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published 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 ...

nominations.

Biography

Healy was born in 1943 in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

and grew up in rural

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

. She graduated from Immaculate Heart College. She was involved in the Woman's Building, the well known West Coast feminist cultural center, throughout the 1970s and 1980s in various capacities including as a teacher and a member of the Board of Directors. Healy became the first Poet Laureate of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 2012. She was instrumental in directing the

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

program at Cal State Northridge, started the MFA program in creative writing at Antioch University, Los Angeles where she is professor emeritus, and founded Arktoi Books, an imprint of

Red Hen Press Red Hen Press is an American non-profit press located in Pasadena, California, and specializing in the publication of poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. The press is a member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, and was a fin ...

Works

Individual works

* ''Artemis In Echo Park: Poetry'', Firebrand Books, 1991, * ''Building Some Changes'', (chapbook), (A Beyond Baroque New Book), Beyond Baroque Foundation, 1976, OCLC: 2462676 * ''The Islands Project'',

, 2007, * ''Ordinary Wisdom'',

, 2005, * ''A Packet Beating Like a Heart'', (chapbook), Books of a Feather, 1981, OCLC: 8463876 * ''Passing'', Red Hen Press, 2002, * ''A Wild Surmise: New & Selected Poems & Recordings'', Red Hen Press, 2013, * ''Women's Studies Chronicles'' (Laguna Poets Series, 99), The Inevitable Press, 1998, (chapbook)

Anthologies including her writings

* ''Another City: Writing from Los Angeles'', ed. David L. Ulin, City Lights Publishers, 2001, * ''The Geography of Home: California's Poetry of Place'', Heyday Books, 1999, * ''Grand Passion: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond'', principal ed., Suzanne Lummis, Red Wind Books, 1995, * ''Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals'', eds., Barbara Peterson, Brenda Peterson and Deena Metzger, Ballantine Books, 1999, * ''The World in Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave'', eds., Michael Lassell, Elena Georgiou, St. Martin's Press, 2000,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Healy, Eloise Klein Living people Poets laureate of Los Angeles American women poets American lesbian writers American LGBTQ poets 1943 births Chapbook writers 21st-century American women writers