Sue Lenier
Sue Lenier | |
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| Born | Susan Jennifer Lenier 9 October 1957 Birmingham,England |
| Occupation | poet and playwright |
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Susan Jennifer Lenier(born 9 October 1957) is an English writer. She published two books of poetry and a number of plays.
Biography[edit]
Sue Lenier was born inBirmingham,schooled inTyneside,and attendedClare College, Cambridge.After graduating from Cambridge in 1980, she spend a year writing and performing in Germany and the UK before taking aHarkness Fellowshipin the US, where she studied acting and drama at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.[1]
Her first published collection of poems,Swansongs,was published in 1982.[2]It received a favourable review in a Britishtabloid,theDaily Mirror,[3]and led to sometimes extravagant comparisons toWilliam ShakespeareandCharles Baudelaire.[4]She was hailed by some as a great new poet: Reed Whittemore, a former poetry consultant to theLibrary of Congress,praised her as "a musician-poet, wholly in love with rhythm and sound"; the lateMalcolm BowieofQueen Mary, University of London,called her "an important writer."[1]This positive praise was not universal:Christopher Reid,writing forThe Sunday Times,said that she was "a striving, clumsy, humorless imitator of antiquated modes, with nothing original to say, but an earnest desire to make impressive gestures."[1]Swansongswas published while Lenier was studying in the United States, and the book and her author made enough of an impression to warrant articles by some of the best journalists of prestigious newspapers:D.J.R. Brucknerin theNew York Timesand Colman McCarthy in theWashington Post.
She published a second volume of poems,Rain Following,also with Oleander Press. While the popular press in America and England showed great interest in Sue Lenier and her work, literary critics and academics took no notice of her work, and only one of her poems, "Finale," from her first volume, has been anthologised.[5]
Since then, her poetic career appears to have ended; the only known works by her have been for the stage. Reportedly, she wroteDoctor's Orders,Eden Song,andKnight Fall,the last two first being performed at theEdinburgh Festival.[6]In 1995, theNew Statesman & Societypublished three of her poems, "Stardom," "Breakdown," and "Hospital Visit"; the magazine also reported aradio play,A Fool And His Heart,was broadcast on Radio Three'sDrama Now.[7]According to a British website, a screenplay by Will Davies about the writing of her first book whilst a student at Cambridge has been optioned byUniversal Studios.[8]
Poetic craft[edit]
The most often noted thing about Lenier's poetic craft was that she composed poetry in an impromptu manner and didn't seem to revise any of her work;Swansongwas sent to the publisher as a first-draft copy,[1]and in theNew York Timesshe was quoted, "'I just write the poems straight out. At first I tried to correct a few and I didn't like the corrections, so I don't do it any more."[4]Indeed, for her quick compositions made on the fly she was nicknamed "the possessed poet" —though it was acknowledged that such poetic production easily leads to "superficial glibness."[9]In the same vein, theLos Angeles Timesreferred to her writing as "the fastest scrawl in the west."[10]This method of composition looked down upon with some disdain by literary critics such as John T. Shawcross (editor, critic, and bibliographer ofJohn Milton) in hisIntentionality and the New Traditionalism,discussing the "truism of the need for planning and revision": "I am aware of such 'spontaneous' writing as that of Sue Lenier, who boasts of never altering a line after it has been put down, and of some critical assessments that have been quoted to increase sales. I rest my case on the reader's evaluation of her work."[11]The immediate and effusive praise of her first book of poems, and especially John Newton's championship of her poetry, was criticised in a book byDavid Holbrook,John Newton, Blasphemy and Poetic Taste.[12]
Bibliography[edit]
Poetry[edit]
- Lenier, Sue (1982).Swansongs.Cambridge and New York: The Oleander Press.ISBN0-906672-03-1.
- Lenier, Sue (1984).Rain Following.Cambridge and New York: The Oleander Press.ISBN978-0-906672-19-8.
Drama[edit]
- Doctor's Orders
- Eden Song
- Knight Fall
Radio play[edit]
A Fool And His Heart(Radio Three,Drama Now)
References[edit]
- ^abcdMcCarthy, Colman (5 December 1982). "Poetry Rushes Forth; Sue Lenier and Her Rare Gift For Creating Flowing, Spontaneous Verse".Washington Post.p. G1.
- ^Lenier, Sue (1982).Swansongs.Cambridge and New York: The Oleander Press.ISBN0-906672-03-1.
- ^.Daily Mirror.17 May 1982. p. 9.
{{cite news}}:Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^abBruckner, D.J.R. (29 August 1982)."A Poet So Prolific She Seems Possessed".New York Times.p. A8.Retrieved3 March2009.
- ^Hollis, Jill; Hollis, Jim (1993).Love's Witness: Five Centuries of Love Poetry by Women.Carroll & Graf. p. 109.ISBN978-0-7867-0030-1.
- ^"Sue Lenier".Doollee.com: The Playwright's Database.Retrieved27 February2009.
- ^Lenier, Sue (3 October 1995). "Stardom, Breakdown, Hospital Visit".New Statesman & Society.8(343).ISSN0954-2361.
- ^"Members".Netcurtains.org.Retrieved3 March2009.
- ^Gardner, Howard(1993).Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.Basic Books. p.83.ISBN978-0-465-02510-7.
- ^McCarthy, Colman (3 April 1983)."Fastest Scrawl in the West".Los Angeles Times.pp. Q7.Retrieved3 March2009.
- ^Shawcross, John T. (1991).Intentionality and the New Traditionalism: Some Liminal Means to Literary Revisionism.Penn State Press. p. 211.ISBN978-0-271-00758-8.
- ^"A demolition of John Newton's championship of the poet Sue Lenier. Newton claimed she was 'the only poet of our century of the order of Tennyson and comparable with Shakespeare.' This claim attracted a great deal of notice at the time (1980). Reminiscent of claims made for Laura Riding and Elizabeth Daryush."Holbrook, David (1984).John Newton, Blasphemy and Poetic Taste.Retford: The Brynmill Press. Archived fromthe originalon 27 February 2009.
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