Edward Field | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 7, 1924 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, author |
| Partner | Neil Derrick (died 2018) |
| Awards | Lamont Poetry Prize (Academy of American Poets) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service/ | United States Army Air Forces |
| Rank | Officer |
| Unit | 8th Air Force |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Edward Field (born June 7, 1924) is an American poet and author of fiction and non-fiction, as well as anthologies and periodicals.
Field was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a family of Ashkenazi immigrants. He grew up in Lynbrook, New York, and, being Jewish, [1] [2] he and his family faced antisemitism and discrimination. He played cello in the "Field Family Trio", which had a weekly radio program on WGBB Freeport. He served in World War II in the 8th Air Force in England and France, as a navigator in heavy bombers, and flew 25 missions over Germany. In February 1945, he took part in a raid on Berlin with his B-17. His bomber was crippled by flak and crash-landed in the North Sea. All ten crew members made it into the plane's life rafts, but only seven of them managed to resist till the moment they were rescued by a British air-sea boat hours later.
He began writing poetry during World War II, after a Red Cross worker handed him an anthology of poetry. In 1963, Field's book Stand Up, Friend, With Me was awarded the prestigious Lamont Poetry Prize and was published. In 1992, he received a Lambda Award for Counting Myself Lucky, Selected Poems 1963–1992. [3]
Field's other honors include the Shelley Memorial Award, a Rome Prize, and an Academy Award for the documentary film To Be Alive! , for which he wrote the narration. He received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2005.
In 1979, he edited the anthology A Geography of Poets, and in 1992, with Gerald Locklin and Charles Stetler, brought out a sequel, A New Geography of Poets.
He and his partner Neil Derrick (1931–2018), [4] long-time residents of Greenwich Village, wrote a best-selling historical novel about the Village, The Villagers. They were both artists in residence at Westbeth Artists Community since 1972. [5] Derrick died on January 5, 2018. As of 2018, Field continued to reside at Westbeth. [6] Field's narrative poem "World War II" is part of Poets of World War II anthology, published by the Library of America and edited by Harvey Shapiro.
In 2005, the University of Wisconsin Press published his literary memoirs The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag and Other Intimate Literary Portraits of the Bohemian Era, the title of which refers to the writer Alfred Chester. [7] His most recent book After the Fall: Poems Old and New was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2007.
British editor Diana Athill's Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend (Granta Books, 2011) is a collection of letters from her to Field chronicling their intimate correspondence spanning more than 30 years. [8] [9]
In 2019, Field's niece Diane Weis produced the animated film Minor Accident of War, inspired by his memories of survival during the World War II. Designed by Piotr Kabat, the film is narrated by Field using the text from his poem "World War II". [10]
Field turned 100 on June 7, 2024. [11]
Poetry and essays in The New Yorker , The New York Review of Books , Gay & Lesbian Review , Partisan Review , The Nation , Evergreen Review , The New York Times Book Review , Michigan Quarterly , Raritan Quarterly Review , Parnassus , and The Kenyon Review .
Robert Kelly is an American poet associated with the deep image group. He was named the first Dutchess County poet laureate 2016-2017.
Edward Merton Dorn was an American poet and teacher often associated with the Black Mountain poets. His most famous work is Gunslinger.
Hayden Carruth was an American poet, literary critic and anthologist. He taught at Syracuse University.
J. D. "Sandy" McClatchy was an American poet, opera librettist and literary critic. He was editor of the Yale Review and president of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Alberto Álvaro Ríos is a US academic and writer who is the author of ten books and chapbooks of poetry, three collections of short stories, and a memoir.
Carol Potter is an American poet and professor known for writing the book Some Slow Bees. She currently teaches at Antioch University.
Carl Phillips is an American writer and poet. He is a Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2023, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.
Michael Schmidt OBE FRSL is a Mexican-British poet, author, scholar and publisher.
John Yau is an American poet and critic who lives in New York City. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1978. He has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction, and art criticism.
Tom Clark was an American poet, editor and biographer.
Joan Larkin is an American poet and playwright. She was active in the small press lesbian feminist publishing explosion in the 1970s, co-founding the independent publishing company Out & Out Books. She is now in her fourth decade of teaching writing. The science fiction writer Donald Moffitt was her brother.
Cyrus Cassells is an American poet and professor.
Willis Barnstone is an American poet, religious scholar, and translator. He was born in Lewiston, Maine and lives in Oakland, California. He has translated works by Jorge Luis Borges, Antonio Machado, Rainer Maria Rilke, Pedro Salinas, Pablo Neruda, and Wang Wei, as well as the New Testament and fragments by Sappho and pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (Ἡράκλειτος).
Khaled Mattawa is a Libyan poet, and a renowned Arab-American writer, he is also a leading literary translator, focusing on translating Arabic poetry into English. He works as an Assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, where he currently lives and writes.
Rebecca Seiferle is an American poet.
Richard Blanco is an American poet, public speaker, author, playwright, and civil engineer. He is the fifth poet to read at a United States presidential inauguration, having read the poem "One Today" for Barack Obama's second inauguration. He is the first immigrant, the first Latino, the first openly gay person and at the time the youngest person to be the U.S. inaugural poet. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Samiya A. Bashir is a queer American artist, poet, and author. Much of Bashir's poetry explores the intersections of culture, change, and identity through the lens of race, gender, the body and sexuality. She is currently the June Jordan visiting professor at Columbia University of New York. Bashir is the first black woman recipient of the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize in Literature. She was also the third black woman to serve as tenured professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
Elizabeth Bartlett was an American poet and writer noted for her lyrical and symbolic poetry, creation of the new twelve-tone form of poetry, founder of the international non-profit organization Literary Olympics, Inc., and known as an author of fiction, essays, reviews, translations, and as an editor.
Joy Ladin is an American poet and the former David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. She was the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution.
