Jennifer Reeser (born 1968 in

Lake Charles, Louisiana Lake Charles is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, fifth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the county seat, parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles (Louisiana), Lake Char ...

) is an American New Formalist poet of Native American descent. She is the author of several poetry collections, including ''An Alabaster Flask'' (2003), ''Winterproof'' (2005), ''Sonnets from the Dark Lady and Other Poems'' (2012), ''The Lalaurie Horror'' (2013), ''Indigenous'' (2019), and ''Strong Feather'' (2022). Similarly to

Richard Wilbur Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets, along with his friend Anthony Hecht, of the World War II generation, Wilbur's work, often employing rhyme, and c ...

Dana Gioia Michael Dana Gioia (; born December 24, 1950) is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist. Since the early 1980s, Gioia has been considered part of the highly controversial and countercultural literary movements w ...

, and

Rhina Espaillat Rhina Polonia Espaillat (born January 20, 1932, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a bilingual Dominican-American poet and translator who is affiliated with the literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry. She has published el ...

, she has also served as a teacher and mentor at the annual

West Chester University Poetry Conference The West Chester University Poetry Conference is an international poetry conference that has been held annually since 1995 at West Chester University, Pennsylvania, United States. It hosts various panel discussions and poetry craft workshops, wh ...

. Poet X.J. Kennedy praised Reeser's first poetry collection, which he said, "ought to have been a candidate for a Pulitzer." In addition to her translations of

French poetry French poetry () is a category of French literature. It may include Francophone literature, Francophone poetry composed outside France and poetry written in other languages of France. French prosody and poetics The modern French language does not ...

, Reeser has also translated the Russian poetry of

Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; , . ( – 5 March 1966), better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova,. ...

into English, with the approval of the poet's heirs. Reeser's poetry has been translated into

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

, and

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, and has been set to music by composer Lori Laitman.

Personal life

Jennifer Reeser is married to Jason Phillip Reeser, a fiction writer. They have five children.

References

External links

Personal websiteJennifer Reeser
- at

The Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is a United States literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthrop ...

website. 1968 births American women poets 21st-century American poets American Catholic poets Cherokee Nation women writers Cherokee Nation writers Formalist poets French–English translators Living people Native American poets Poets from Louisiana Russian–English translators Sonneteers Native American people from Louisiana {{US-poet-1960s-stub