Ruth Fainlight

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

(born 2 May 1931) is an American-born poet, short story writer, translator and librettist based in the United Kingdom.

Life and career

Ruth Fainlight was born in New York, but has mainly lived in Britain since she was 15, having also spent some years living in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. She studied for two years at the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

Colleges of Art. In addition to her own works, Fainlight has also provided criticism for

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

, ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and numerous other publications. Fainlight was married to the British writer

Alan Sillitoe Alan Sillitoe FRSL (4 March 192825 April 2010) was an English writer and one of the so-called " angry young men" of the 1950s. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied. He is best known for his debut novel ...

(1928–2010) and has a son, David, who is a photographer for ''The Guardian'', and an adopted daughter, Susan. Fainlight lives in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Fainlight has twice been Poet in Residence at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, and was a close friend of

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

in the years leading up to Plath's death.

Publications

Poetry collections

* ''Cages'', 1966. * ''To See the Matter Clearly'', 1968 from Macmillan UK; Dufour Editions, US * ''The Region's Violence'', 1973. * ''Another Full Moon'', 1976. * ''Sibyls and Others''. 1980. New edition, Poetry Book Society, 2007 * ''Fifteen to Infinity'', 1983. Also published 1987, Carnegie-Mellon University Press US * ''Selected Poems''. 1987. * ''The Knot'' 1990. from Hutchinson or CenturyHutchinson, UK * ''Climates''. Bloodaxe Books UK, 1983. * ''This Time of Year'', 1994. * ''Selected Poems''. Updated new edition,

Sinclair-Stevenson Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd was a British publisher founded in 1989 by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson. Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson became an editor at Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited is a publishing imprint and originally a British p ...

UK, 1995. * ''Sugar-Paper Blue''. Bloodaxe Books UK, Dufour Editions US, 1997. **Shortlisted for 1998 Whitbread Poetry Prize * ''Burning Wire''. Bloodaxe Books UK, Dufour Editions US, 2002. * ''Moon Wheels''. Bloodaxe Books, 2006. Dufour Editions US, 2007. * ''New and Collected Poems''. Bloodaxe Books, 25 November 2010. * ''Somewhere Else Entirely''. Bloodaxe Books, 15 November 2018.

Books

* ''Sibyls''. Gehenna Press US, 1991, with woodcuts by

Leonard Baskin Leonard Baskin (August 15, 1922 – June 3, 2000) was an American sculptor, draughtsman and graphic artist, as well as founder of the Gehenna Press (1942–2000). One of America's first fine arts presses, it went on to become "one of the most imp ...

. * ''Pomegranate''. Editions de l`Eau, Ceret, France, 1997, mezzotints by Judith Rothchild * ''Leaves/Feuilles'', Editions Verdigris, Octon, France, 1998. Bi-lingual, French/English, tr. M. Duclos; mezzotints by Judith Rothchild * ''Feathers'', Editions Verdigris, France, 2002. Mezzotints by Judith Rothchild * ''Sheba and Solomon''. Pratt Contemporary Art, UK, 2004. Drypoints by Ana Maria Pacheco

Short story collections

* ''Daylife and Nightlife''. London:

André Deutsch André Deutsch (15 November 1917 – 11 April 2000) was a Hungarian-born British publisher who founded an eponymous publishing company in 1951. Biography Deutsch was born on 15 November 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a Jewish dentist ...

, 1971. * ''Dr. Clock's Last Case''. London:

Virago Press Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several British femin ...

, 1994.

Translations

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist who was a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age (1492–1659) of Spanish Baroque literature, Baroque literature. In the literature of ...

, ''All Citizens Are Soldiers''. Macmillan UK, 1966. Tr. from Spanish (original title: ''Fuenteovejuna'') with Alan Sillitoe * ''Navigations'' 1983, Casa da Moeda, Portugal, and Marine Rose, 1987, Black Swan US, poems, from Portuguese of

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (6 November 1919 – 2 July 2004) was a Portuguese poet and writer. Considered one of the most important Portuguese poets of the 20th century, she published fourteen poetry books between 1944 and 1997, covering th ...

* Selection of poems by Jean Joubert, from French, included in ''Selected Poems'', 1995 *

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

, ''The Theban Trilogy'' 2009. Translated with Robert Littman, Johns Hopkins University Press, US

Poetry collections in translation

* ''La Verità sulla Sibilla'', 2003, translated from Italian. Alessandra Schiavinato and Paolo Ruffilli, published by Edizioni del Leone, Venice, Italy * ''Visitação'', 1995, edited by Ana Hatherly, Quetzal Editores, Lisbon, Portugal * ''Encore la Pleine Lune'', 1997, trans. M. Duclos & J. Joubert, Editions Federop, Eglise-Neuve d'Issac, France * ''Leaves/Feuilles'' 1998, trans. M. Duclos, Editions Verdigris, Octon, France * ''Bleu Papier-Sucre'', 2000, trans. M. Duclos, Les Amis de la Poésie, Bergerac, France * ''Plumas (Feathers)'' (in English and Spanish) published by Editorial El Tucan de Virginia, Mexico City, Mexico, 2005. * ''Poemas'' 2000, trans. B. Varela, L. Graves, M. Negroni, J. Capriata, M. Lauer Editorial Pequeña Venecia, Caracas, Venezuela * ''Autorul La Rampa'', 2007, tr. Lidia Vianu, Univers Enciclopedic, Bucharest, Romania * ''La Nueva Ciencia de los Materiales Fuertes'' (bi-lingual, English/Spanish) 2009, trans. M. Rosenberg & D. Samoilovich, Cosmopoetica, Cordoba, Spain

Poems in translation

The poem "Sugar-Paper Blue" was translated into Russian by Marina Boroditskaya and is published in the April 2003 issue of the

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

monthly ''Inostrannaya Literatura'' (''Foreign Literature''). The poem sequence "Sheba and Solomon" has been translated into Russian by Marina Boroditskaya and published in Moscow in the literary magazine ''Novaya Younost'' in 2003.

Libretti

* ''The Dancer Hotoke'' 1991, composer Erika Fox (nominated for the 1992

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...

Awards). * ''The European Story'' 1993, chamber opera, composer Geoffrey Alvarez (based on the poem of the same name). Both works above were commissioned by the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

for their "Garden Venture" program in 1991 and 1993. * ''Bedlam Britannica'' September 1995.

Awards and honours

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards ( ) are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

for Poetry, 1994 * Hawthornden Fellowship, 1987 * Fellow of

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

, 2007

Notes

External links

British Council biography
at Contemporary Writers
Profile and poems written and audio
at the Poetry Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Fainlight, Ruth 1931 births Living people 20th-century American poets Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art Alumni of the University of Brighton Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Poets from New York City American expatriates in England American women poets American librettists Women opera librettists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American translators 21st-century American translators