Rae Armantrout (born April 13, 1947) 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 ...

generally associated with the

Language poets The Language poets (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E (magazine), ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Berna ...

. She has published more than two dozen books, including both poetry and prose. Armantrout was awarded the 2009

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Versed'' which was also nominated for the National Book Award. ''Versed'' later received the 2010

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award came five years after the first Pulitzers were awarded in other categories; Joseph Pulitzer's will had not ment ...

. Armantrout is now retired from her long tenure teaching at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

, where she was Professor of Poetry and Poetics.

Early life

Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California. An only child, she was raised among military communities on naval bases, predominantly in San Diego. In her autobiography ''True'' (1998), she describes herself as having endured an insular childhood, a sensitive child of working class, Methodist fundamentalist parents. In 1965, while living in the Allied Gardens district with her parents, Armantrout attended San Diego State University, intending to major in anthropology. During her studies she transferred to English and American literature, later studying at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, Armantrout studied with poet

Denise Levertov Priscilla Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997) was a British-born naturalised American poet. She was heavily influenced by the Black Mountain poets and by the political context of the Vietnam War, which she explored in her p ...

and befriended

Ron Silliman Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946) is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman w ...

. The latter became an important friendship for both poets, as each of them would become associated with the “West Coast” contingent of the so-called Language poets of late 1980s San Francisco.

Literary career and recognition

Armantrout published poetry in ''

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

'' in the early 1970s, and from this point began to view herself as a poet. She took a master's degree in creative writing from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

, and wrote ''Extremities'' (1978), her first book of poetry. Armantrout's poems have appeared in many anthologies, including ''In The American Tree'' ( National Poetry Foundation), ''Language Poetries'' ( New Directions), '' Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology'', From the Other Side of the Century (Sun & Moon), ''Out of Everywhere'' (Reality Street), ''American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Language Meets the Lyric Tradition'', (Wesleyan, 2002), ''The Oxford Book of American Poetry'' (Oxford, UP, 2006) and several appearances in the annually published ''The Best American Poetry'', including ''1988'', ''2001'', ''2002'', ''2004'' and ''2007''. Armantrout has twice received a Fund For Poetry Grant and was a California Arts Council Fellowship recipient in 1989. In 2007 she received a Grants to Artists Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 2008. Armantrout was one of a group of ten poets who participated in ''The Grand Piano: An Experiment In Collective Autobiography.'' Writing for these volumes began in 1998 and the first of its 10 volumes was published in November 2006. ''Wobble'', published in November 2018, was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Poetry.

Style

Armantrout was a member of the original West Coast Language group. Although Language poetry can be seen as advocating a poetics of nonreferentiality, Armantrout's work, focusing as it often does on the local and the domestic, resists such definitions. Unlike most of the group, her work is firmly grounded in experience of the local and domestic worlds and she is regarded by some as the most lyrical of the Language Poets. Armantrout credits

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His '' Spring and All'' (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land'' (1922). ...

for developing her "sense of the line" and her understanding that "line breaks can create suspense and can destabilize meaning through delay." The basic unit of meaning in Armantrout's poetry is either the

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

or the section, and she writes both

prose poetry Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form while otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it make ...

and more traditional stanza-based poems. In a published interview with poet and novelist

Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. The recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, Lerner has been a finalist for the National Book Award for P ...

for ''

BOMB Magazine ''Bomb'' (stylized in all caps as ''BOMB'') is an American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of discipli ...

'', Armantrout said that she is more likely to write a prose poem "when hehear the voice of a conventional narrator in erhead."

Reception

Critic

Stephanie Burt Stephanie Burt (formerly published as Stephen Burt) is a literary critic and poet who is the Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at Harvard University. ''The New York Times'' has called her "one of the most influential poetry cr ...

at the ''Boston Review'' commented:

Personal life

Armantrout graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1970 and married Chuck Korkegian in 1971, whom she had dated since her first year at the university. Armantrout resides in the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

area.

Selected bibliography

Poetry

;Collections * ''Extremities'' (The Figures, 1978) * ''The invention of hunger'' (Tuumba, 1979) * ''Precedence'' (Burning Deck, 1985) * ''Necromance'' (Sun and Moon Press, 1991) * ''Couverture'' (Les Cahiers de Royaumont, 1991) - a selection in French translation * ''Made To Seem'' (Sun and Moon Press, 1995) * ''Veil: New and Selected Poems'' (

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 ...

, 2001) * ''The Pretext'' (Green Integer, 2001) * ''Up to Speed'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2004) * ''Next Life'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2007) *''Narrativ'' nglish-German, Bilingual edition, translated by Uda Strätling and Martin Göritz(Luxbooks, Wiesbaden, 2009) ) * '' Versed'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2009) - 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry * ''Money Shot'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2011) * ''Just Saying'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2013) * ''Itself'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2015) * ''Partly: New and Selected Poems, 2001-2015'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2016) * ''Wobble'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2018) * ''Conjure'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2020) * ''Finalists'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2022) * ''Go Figure'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2024) ;Chapbooks * ''writing the plot about sets'' (Chax, 1998) * ''Currency'' ( Yale Union, 2016) * ''Entanglements'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2020) * ''Notice'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2024)

Prose

*''True'' (Atelos, 1998) - memoir; republished in ''Collected Prose'' *''The Grand Piano: An Experiment In Collective Autobiography'' (with

Bob Perelman Bob Perelman (born December 2, 1947) is an American poet, critic, editor, and teacher. He was an early exponent of the Language poets, an avant-garde movement, originating in the 1970s. He has helped shape a "formally adventurous, politically e ...

Barrett Watten Barrett Watten (born October 3, 1948) is an American poet, editor, and educator associated with the Language poets. He is a professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, where he teaches modernism and cultural stu ...

, Steve Benson, Carla Harryman, Tom Mandel,

Kit Robinson Kit Robinson (born May 17, 1949) is an American poet, translator, writer and musician. An early member of the San Francisco Language poets circle, he has published 28 books of poetry. Life and work Born in Evanston, Illinois, Robinson graduated ...

Lyn Hejinian Lyn Hejinian ( ; May 17, 1941 – February 24, 2024) was an American poet, essayist, translator, and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is known for her landmark work ''My Life'' (Sun & Moon (publisher), Sun & Moon, 198 ...

, and

Ted Pearson Ted Pearson (born 1948 in Palo Alto, California) is an American poet. He is often associated with the Language poets. Life and work Pearson was born in 1948 in Palo Alto, California. He began studying music in 1960 and began writing poetry in 196 ...

) (Mode A/This Press, 2007) *''Collected Prose'' (Singing Horse Press, 2007);

List of poems

References

External links

Biography from the International Literature Festival Berlin
at Stanford
Rae Armantrout profile
at the

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 ...

Profile
at ''Green Integer''

essay by Armantrout at ''

Jacket A jacket is a garment for the upper body, usually extending below the hips. A jacket typically has sleeves and fastens in the front or slightly on the side. Jackets without sleeves are vests. A jacket is generally lighter, tighter-fitting, and ...

'')
Interview with Armantrout
(Audio), ''

PBS NewsHour ''PBS News Hour'', previously stylized as ''PBS NewsHour'', is the news division of PBS and an American daily evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stat ...

'', April 19, 2010. Includes poems and transcript.
Interview in ''BOMB Magazine''
Winter 2011
Armantrout resources at PENNSoundArmantrout interviewed on ''Bookworm'' at KCRW
February 26, 2009
Armantrout at the University of Chicago
gives a talk on the lyric poem (March 2011).

at ''Women's voices for change'' April 14, 2010
Interview in Spanish magazine ''Jot Down''
March 2012
On Poetry and Complexity - Conversation with Madhur Anand, Roald Hoffman, and Sarah TolmieOn Poetry and Complexity
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armantrout, Rae Living people 1947 births 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers American women poets Language poets Poets from California Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners The New Yorker people University of California, San Diego faculty San Francisco State University alumni Writers from Vallejo, California