Maxine Kumin

Maxine Kumin
Maxine Kumin
	Kumin in 1974
Born	Maxine Winokur; June 6, 1925; Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,United States
Died	February 6, 2014(aged 88); Warner,New Hampshire,U.S.
Occupation	Poet, author
Education	Harvard University(BA,MA)
Spouse	Victor Kumin(married 1946–2014)
Children	3
Website
	www.maxinekumin.com

Maxine Kumin(June 6, 1925 – February 6, 2014) was an American poet and author. She was appointedPoet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congressin 1981–1982.^[1]

Biography[edit]

Early years[edit]

Maxine Kumin was bornMaxine Winokuron June 6, 1925 inPhiladelphia,the daughter of Jewish parents, and attended a Catholic kindergarten and primary school. She received her B.A. in 1946 and her M.A. in 1948 fromRadcliffe CollegeofHarvard University.In June 1946 she married Victor Kumin, a Harvard graduate and engineering consultant; they had three children, two daughters and a son. In 1957, she studied poetry with John Holmes at theBoston Center for Adult Education.There she metAnne Sexton,with whom she started a friendship that continued until Sexton's suicide in 1974. Kumin taught English from 1958 to 1961 and 1965 to 1968 atTufts University;from 1961 to 1963 she was a scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study. She also held appointments as a visiting lecturer and poet in residence at many American colleges and universities. From 1976 until her death in February 2014, she and her husband lived on a farm inWarner,New Hampshire,where they bredArabianandquarter horses.^[2]

Career[edit]

Kumin's many awards include the Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize for Poetry (1972), thePulitzer Prize for Poetry(1973) forUp Country,in 1995 theAiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry,the 1994Poets' Prize(forLooking for Luck), anAmerican Academy and Institute of Arts and LettersAward for excellence in literature (1980), an Academy of American Poets fellowship (1986), the 1999Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize,and six honorary degrees. In 1979, theSupersisterstrading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Kumin's name and picture.^[3]She was also awarded theSarah Joseph Hale Awardandthe Levinson Prize.She has also received aNational Endowment for the Artsgrant and fellowships from theAcademy of American Poets.^[4]In 1981–1982, she served as the poetry consultant to the Library of Congress. Kumin has been published inBeloit Poetry Journal.

Critics have compared Kumin withElizabeth Bishopbecause of her meticulous observations and withRobert Frost,for she frequently devotes her attention to the rhythms of life in ruralNew England.She has been grouped withconfessional poetssuch asAnne Sexton,Sylvia PlathandRobert Lowell.But unlike the confessionalists, Kumin eschews high rhetoric and adopts a plain style. Throughout her career, Kumin has struck a balance between her sense of life's transience and her fascination with the dense physical presence of the world around her. She served as the 1985 judge of theBrittingham Prize in Poetryand she selectedPatricia Dobler'sTalking To Strangers.

She taught poetry in New England College's Low-Residency MFA Program. She was also a contributing editor atThe Alaska Quarterly Review.Together with fellow-poetCarolyn Kizer,she first served on and then resigned from the board of chancellors of theAcademy of American Poets,an act that galvanized the movement for opening this august body to broader representation by women and minorities.^[5]

In 1998 when Kumin was 73 she was almost killed in a horseback-riding accident which broke her neck.^[6]

Kumin, aged 88, died in February 2014 at her home in Warner, following a year of failing health.^[7]

Kumin is believed to be the last person to have seenAnne Sextonalive, as the two of them had had lunch the day of Sexton's suicide in 1974.

Bibliography[edit]

Poetry[edit]

Collections[edit]

Kumin, Maxine (1961).Halfway.New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
The Privilege,Harper & Row, 1965
The Nightmare Factory,Harper & Row, 1970
The Abduction,Harper & Row, 1971,ISBN 9780060124724
Up Country,Harper & Row, 1972 (illustrated byBarbara Swan)
House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate,Viking/Penguin, 1975,ISBN 9780670379965
The Retrieval System,Viking/Penguin, 1978,ISBN 9780670595761
Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief, New and Selected Poems,Viking/Penguin 1982,ISBN 9780140422986
The Long Approach,Viking/Penguin, 1985–6,ISBN 9780670804290
Nurture,Viking/Penguin 1989,ISBN 9780670824380
Looking for Luck,W. W. Norton, 1992,ISBN 978-0-393-30947-8
Connecting the Dots,W. W. Norton, 1996,ISBN 978-0-393-31695-7
Selected Poems 1960–1990,W. W. Norton, 1997,ISBN 978-0-393-31836-4,cloth; paper;New York Timesnotable book of the year
Maxine Kumin (17 May 2003).The Long Marriage: Poems.W. W. Norton. pp. 71–.ISBN 978-0-393-34799-9.cloth, paper; finalist for the Lenore Marshall Award of the Academy of American Poets, 2002
Bringing Together: Uncollected Early Poems 1958–1988,W. W. Norton, 2003,ISBN 9780393326376
Jack and Other New Poems,W. W. Norton, 2005,ISBN 9780393059564
Still to Mow: Poems.W. W. Norton. 2 February 2009. pp. 68–.ISBN 978-0-393-34773-9.
Where I Live: New & Selected Poems 1990-2010.W. W. Norton. 12 April 2010.ISBN 978-0-393-07649-3.
And Short the Season,W. W. Norton, 2014,ISBN 978-0-393-24100-6

List of poems[edit]

Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected
Xanthopsia	2013	*Kumin, Maxine (July 1, 2013)."Xanthopsia".The New Yorker.Vol. 89, no. 19. p. 33.

Novels[edit]

Through Dooms of Love,Harper & Row, 1965; Hamish Hamilton & Gollancz (England), Panther paper
The Passions of Uxport,Harper & Row, 1968, Dell paper, 1969
The Abduction,Harper & Row, 1971
The Designated Heir,Viking, 1974; Andre Deutsch (England)
Quit Monks or Die(animal rights mystery), Story Line Press, 1999,ISBN 9781885266774

Essays and short story collections[edit]

To Make a Prairie: Essays on Poets, Poetry and Country Living,University of Michigan Press, 1980 paper
Why Can't We Live Together Like Civilized Human Beings?Viking 1982
In Deep: Country Essays,Viking 1987,ISBN 9780670814312;Beacon Press 1988
Women, Animals, and Vegetables: Essays and Stories,Norton, 1994; Ontario Review Press, paper, 1996
Telling the Barn Swallow: Poets on the Poetry of Maxine Kumin,ed. by Emily Grosholz, University Press of New England, 1997
Always Beginning: Essays on a Life in Poetry,Copper Canyon Press,2000,ISBN 9781556591419
Inside the Halo and Beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery.W. W. Norton. 17 November 2001. pp. 207–.ISBN 978-0-393-32261-3.
The Roots of Things: Essays.Northwestern University Press. 30 March 2010.ISBN 978-0-8101-2648-0.

Children's books[edit]

1961Follow the Fall(Illustrated byArtur Marokvia)
1961Spring Things(Illustrated byArtur Marokvia)
1961Summer Story(Illustrated byArtur Marokvia)
1961A Winter Friend(Illustrated byArtur Marokvia)
1962Mittens in May(Illustrated byElliott Gilbert)
1964Sebastian and the Dragon(Illustrated byWilliam D. Hayes)
1964Speedy Digs Downside Up(Illustrated byEzra Jack Keats)
1967Faraway Farm(Illustrated byKurt Werth)
1969When Grandmother Was Young(Illustrated byDon Almquist)
1971When Great-Grandmother Was Young(Illustrated byDon Almquist)
1984The Microscope(Illustrated byArnold Lobel),Harper & Row,1984,ISBN 9780060235239
2006Mites to Mastodons(Illustrated byPam Zagarenski)
What Color Is Caesar?.Candlewick Press. 2010.ISBN 978-0-7636-3432-2.
2011Oh, Harry!^[8](Illustrated byBarry Moser)

co-written withAnne Sexton

1963Eggs of Things(Illustrated byLeonard Shortall)
1964More Eggs of Things(Illustrated byLeonard Shortall)
1974Joey and the Birthday Present(Illustrated byEvaline Ness)
1975The Wizard's Tears(Illustrated byEvaline Ness)

Memoirs[edit]

The Pawnbroker's Daughter,W. W. Norton, July 2015,ISBN 978-0-393-24633-9

References[edit]

^"Poet Laureate Timeline: 1971–1980".Library of Congress. 2008.Retrieved2008-12-19.
^In her own words: Being Maxine Kumin Archived2015-11-25 at theWayback Machine
^Wulf, Steve (2015-03-23)."Supersisters: Original Roster".Espn.go.com.Retrieved2015-06-04.
^"About Maxine Kumin | Academy of American Poets".
^Maxin Kumin's Biography
^Foundation, Poetry (2024-01-24)."Maxine Kumin".Poetry Foundation.Retrieved2024-01-24.
^"Poet Maxine Kumin Dies at 88",February 7, 2014, ABC News
^Oh, Harry!.Roaring Brook Press. 21 June 2011.ISBN 978-1-59643-439-4.

External links[edit]

Maxine KuminatIMDb
Encyclopædia Britannicaprofile
Kumin profileat the Poetry Foundation
Kumin's Academy Of American Poets' page
Kumin profile and poems written and audio,Poetry Archive
Maxine Kumin: a reading from the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar (15:45)
Kumin at American Modern Poetry
Christian Science Monitorinterview
Maxine Kumin's Official Web Site
Maxine Kumin and Wesley McNair Poemsread by the authors in a 75-minute video from the U.S. Library of Congress.
Audio:Maxine Kumin reads "Looking Back in my Eighty-First Year"from the bookStill to mow(viapoemsoutloud.net)
Maxine Kumin Papers.Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

[1] "Poet Laureate Timeline: 1971–1980".Library of Congress. 2008.Retrieved2008-12-19.

[2] In her own words: Being Maxine Kumin Archived2015-11-25 at theWayback Machine

[3] Wulf, Steve (2015-03-23)."Supersisters: Original Roster".Espn.go.com.Retrieved2015-06-04.

[4] "About Maxine Kumin | Academy of American Poets".

[5] Maxin Kumin's Biography

[6] Foundation, Poetry (2024-01-24)."Maxine Kumin".Poetry Foundation.Retrieved2024-01-24.

[obit-7] "Poet Maxine Kumin Dies at 88",February 7, 2014, ABC News

[8] Oh, Harry!.Roaring Brook Press. 21 June 2011.ISBN 978-1-59643-439-4.

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