Fanny Howe (born October 15, 1940 in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
) is an American poet, novelist, and short story writer.
Howe has written more than 20 books of poetry and prose. Her major works include poetry such as ''One Crossed Out'', ''Gone'', and ''Second Childhood'', the novels ''Nod'', ''The Deep North'', and ''Indivisible,'' and collected essays ''The Wedding Dress: Meditations on Word and Life and The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation''. She was awarded the 2009
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize by the
Poetry Foundation as well as awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Poetry Foundation, the California Council for the Arts, and the Village Voice. She is
professor emerita
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of Writing and Literature at the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Early life and education
Howe was born in Buffalo, New York. When her father Mark De Wolfe Howe left to join the fighting in World War II, Howe and her mother, the Irish playwright
Mary Manning, moved to
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...
where she grew up. Her father eventually became a colonel and served in Sicily and North Africa and then after the war he went to Potsdam to give legal advice in the reorganization of Europe.
After the war, her father continued his work as a lawyer and became a professor at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
.
Howe's mother was an actress at the
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the pu ...
of Dublin for some time.
Her sister is
Susan Howe, who also became a poet. She attended Stanford University for three years, and in 1961—the year she left Stanford—she married Frederick Delafield, whom she divorced two years later. Her aunt was
Helen Howe, a monologuist and novelist.
As a
Civil Rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fr ...
, she met and married the activist Carl Senna in the 1970s, who is of African-Mexican descent and is also a poet and writer. They are the parents of the novelist
Danzy Senna, who writes about growing up biracial in the 1970s and 80s in her novel ''
Caucasia''. Howe and Senna also had two other children, Lucien Quincy Senna, and Maceo Senna.
Work
Howe is one of the most widely read of American
experimental poets. Her writing career began during the 1960s with a series of
paperback original novels she published under the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Della Field.
Howe has continued to publish novels throughout her career, including ''Lives of the Spirit/Glasstown: Where Something Got Broken'' (2005). She has also continued to publish in the essay form. Some of her essays have been collected, including ''The Wedding Dress: Meditations on Word and Life'' (2003)
Poet
Michael Palmer:
Fanny Howe employs a sometimes fierce, always passionate,
spareness in her lifelong parsing of the exchange between matter and spirit. Her work displays as well a political urgency, that is to say, a profound concern for social justice and for the soundness and fate of the polis
''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...
, the "city on a hill". Writes Emerson, ''The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty.'' Here's the luminous and incontrovertible proof.
Joshua Glenn:
Fanny Howe isn't part of the local literary canon. But her seven novels about interracial love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
and utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...
dreaming offer a rich social history of Boston in the 1960s and '70s.
Howe's prose poems, "Everything's a Fake" and "Doubt", were selected by
David Lehman for the anthology ''Great American Prose Poems: from Poe to the Present'' (2003).
Her poem "Catholic" was selected by
Lyn Hejinian for the 2004 volume of ''
The Best American Poetry''.

Howe's ''Selected Poems'' won the 2001
Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. ''On the Ground'' was on the international shortlist for the 2005
Griffin Poetry Prize. Howe received the 2009
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
She was a judge for the 2015
Griffin Poetry Prize.
Howe has taught at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learnin ...
,
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
,
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is ...
,
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
,
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
and
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
.
Publications
Poetry
* ''Eggs: poems'', Houghton Mifflin, 1970
* ''The Amerindian Coastline Poem'', Telephone Books Press, 1975,
* ''Poem from a Single Pallet'', Kelsey Street Press, 1980,
* ''Alsace-Lorraine'', Telephone Books Press, 1982,
* ''For Erato: The Meaning of Life'', 1984
* ''Robeson Street'',
Alice James Books, 1985,
* ''Introduction to the World'', Figures, 1986,
* ''The Lives of a Spirit'', Sun & Moon Press, 1987,
* ''The Vineyard'', Lost Roads Publishers, 1988,
* ''
ic', Parentheses Writing Series, October 1988,
* ''The End'', Littoral Books, 1992
* ''The Quietist'', O Books, 1992,
* ''O'Clock'', Reality Street, 1995,
* ''One Crossed Out'', Graywolf Press, 1997,
* ''Forged'', Post-Apollo Press, 1999,
* ''Selected Poems'', University of California Press, 2000, (shortlisted for the
Griffin Poetry Prize)
*
* ''Tis of Thee'', Atelos, 2003,
* ''On the Ground'', Graywolf Press, 2004, (also shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize)
* ''The Lives of a Spirit/Glasstown: Where Something Got Broken'' Nightboat Books, 2005,
* ''The Lyrics'', Graywolf Press, 2007,
* (with Henia Karmel-Wolfe and Ilona Karmel)
A Wall of Two: Poems of Resistance and Suffering from Kraków to Buchenwald and Beyond', University of California Press, 2007,
* ''Outremer'', Poetry Magazine, September 2011,
* ''Come and See: Poems'', Graywolf Press, 2011,
*
* ''Love and I: Poems'', Graywolf Press, 2019,
Fiction
* ''West Coast Nurse'' (under the pseudonym Della Field), Avon, 1963,
* ''Vietnam Nurse'' (under the pseudonym Della Field), Avon, 1966
* ''Forty Whacks'', Houghton Mifflin, 1969,
* ''First Marriage'' HarperCollins, 1974,
* ''Bronte Wilde'', Avon Books, 1976,
*
* ''The White Slave'', Avon Books, 1980,
*
* ''The Deep North'', Sun & Moon Press, 1988,
* ''Famous Questions'', Ballantine Books, 1989,
* ''Saving History'', Sun & Moon Press, 1993,
* ''Nod'', Sun & Moon Press, 1998,
* ''Indivisible'', Semiotext(e), 2000,
* ''Economics: Stories'', Flood Editions, 2002,
* ''Radical Love: 5 Novels'', Nightboat Books, 2006,
* ''Night Philosophy'', Divided Publishing, 2020,
* ''London-rose , Beauty Will Save the World'', Divided Publishing, 2022,
Young adult fiction
* ''The Blue Hills'', Avon, 1981,
* ''Yeah, But'' Avon/Flare, August 1982,
* ''Radio City'' Avon/Flare book, 1984,
* ''Taking Care'', Avon Books, 1985,
* ''Race of the Radical'', Viking Kestrel, 1985,
* ''What Did I Do Wrong?'', Illustrator Colleen McCallion, Flood Editions, 2009,
Essays
*
* ''The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation'', Graywolf Press, 2009,
* ''The Needle's Eye: Passing through Youth'', Graywolf Press, 2016,
Reviews
Scott Bentley, ''Jacket 25'', February 2004
Kimberly Lamm, University of Washington, ''Titanic Operas''
Karen Volkman, ''Boston Review'', February/March 2004
"Spiral-Walking" Janique Vigier, ''Bookforum'', 17 February 2020
References
External links
Fanny Howe PapersGriffin Poetry Prize readings, including video clips*
Interview with Kenyon Review'
Fanny Howe page at ''Ploughshares''includes links to Howe's contributions to
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 ...
that began in 1972 with an excerpt from an early novel. Since then she has been a consistent contributor of poems, essays, and non-fiction. Howe was the guest-editor for an edition of Ploughshares in 1974, and has contributed to this journal as recently as 2004.
''Bewilderment''a talk by Fanny Howe, with an excerpt here from a longer version presented 9/25/98 on the ''Poetics & Readings Series'', sponsored by ''Small Press Traffic'' at
New College, San Francisco. ''Bewilderment'' was collected in ''The Wedding Dress'' (2003)
Fanny Howe Interviewed by Jennifer Moxleyfor info on
Jennifer Moxley
Jennifer Moxley (born 12 May 1964) is an American poet, editor, and translator (French) who was born in San Diego, California. She got her GED at 16, took college courses while working in her father's shop, spent a year as an au pair in Paris at ag ...
(link here)
"The Wedding Dress: Meditations On Word and Life" Leonard Schwartz, ''Jacket 28'', October 2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howe, Fanny
Language poets
Modernist women writers
Writers from Boston
1940 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
American young adult novelists
21st-century American novelists
American women novelists
American women poets
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American poets
21st-century American poets
Women writers of young adult literature
Novelists from Massachusetts