Born: December 10, 1925, in Spokane, Washington
Occupation: Poet, Writer, Editor, Lecturer, Professor, Administrator
Known for: Prize-winning feminist poetry, Poetry Northwest, international career
Carolyn Kizer is a feminist poet who was raised in the Pacific Northwest. She has since crisscrossed the United States and the world writing, translating and teaching poetry.
Carolyn Kizer and Feminism
Feminism can be seen as an undercurrent that runs through much of Carolyn Kizer’s work. Her poems are a mix of forms, themes and styles, with wit and contemplation both making appearances.
One of Carolyn Kizer’s best-known poems is "Pro Femina," which is Latin for "for the woman." It opens with the line, "From Sappho to myself, consider the fate of women," and proceeds to do just that through multiple sections. Among the stories in "Pro Femina" is the death of Robert Louis Stevenson as told from the imagined viewpoint of his wife, Fanny.
University and Faculty Life
Carolyn Kizer received a broad education. She attended Sarah Lawrence College for her B.A., then attended graduate school at Columbia University and the University of Washington. It was at Washington that she studied poetry with Theodore Roethke during the 1950s. Carolyn Kizer has said that this is what finally turned her into a confident poet, although critics have questioned whether that reliance on Roethke was necessary.
Carolyn Kizer has taught at multiple universities and renowned writing programs, including Columbia and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
International Work
Carolyn Kizer also taught in Pakistan, as a U.S. State Department specialist. She has studied comparative literature and comparative mythologies. She has translated poetry from multiple languages, including Urdu, Chinese and Japanese.
Keeping Her Northwest Ties
Carolyn Kizer was a co-founder of the journal Poetry Northwest, and an editor there from 1959 to 1965. She appeared in the 1964 anthology Five Poets of the Pacific Northwest. Her work has been published by Eastern Washington University Press and the Copper Canyon Press, also based in Washington.
Other Life and Work of Carolyn Kizer
Carolyn Kizer’s The Ungrateful Garden, published in 1961, is a study of nature, humans’ relationship to nature, and the cycle of life. Her collection Yin won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1985. The word "yin" is the Chinese word for feminine principle; her poems in the collection explore feminine identity and creativity.
Carolyn Kizer has also won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award and numerous other prizes. She was the director of literary programs for the National Endowment for the Arts from 1966 to 1970 and is a former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Carolyn Kizer has three children from her first marriage (1948-1954). She has been a poet-in-residence and lecturer at many universities and writing conferences. She lives in both California and Paris.