Henri Cole

Henri Cole is an American poet, who has published many collections of poetry and a memoir. His books have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Arabic.

Biography

Henri Cole was born in Fukuoka, Japan, to an American father and French-Armenian mother, and raised in Virginia, United States. His father, a North Carolinian, enlisted in the service after graduating from high school and, while stationed in Marseille, met Cole's mother, who worked at the PX. Together they lived in Japan, Germany, Illinois, California, Nevada, Missouri and Virginia, where Cole attended public schools and the College of William and Mary. He has published twelve collections of poetry in English.
From 1982 until 1988 he was executive director of The Academy of American Poets. Since that time he has held many teaching positions and been artist-in-residence at various institutions, including Brandeis University, Columbia University, Davidson College, Harvard University, Ohio State University, Reed College, Smith College, The College of William and Mary, and Yale University. He has collaborated with the visual artists Jenny Holzer and Kiki Smith. And from 2010 to 2014, he was poetry editor of The New Republic. Cole currently teaches at Claremont McKenna College.

Books of poetry

2025: The Other Love, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2023: Gravity and Center , New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2023: Blizzard, Munich: Hanser Verlag, Edition Lyrik Kabinett
2021: Der sichtbare Mensch, Ausgewählte Gedicht, Vienna: Löcker
2020: Blizzard, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2015: Nothing to Declare, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2015: Le Merle, Le Loup suivi de Toucher, Paris: Le bruit du temps
2011: Touch, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2011: Terre Médiane, Paris: Le bruit du temps
2010: Mirlo y Lobo, Cantabria: Quálea Editorial
2010: Autoritratto con Gatti, Parma: Guanda Editore
2010: Pierce the Skin , New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2008: La Apariencia de la Cosas, Cantabria: Quálea Editorial
2007: Blackbird and Wolf, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2005: Vingt-Deux Poèmes, Paris: Yvon Lambert
2003: Middle Earth, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
1998: The Visible Man, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
1995: The Look of Things
1989: The Zoo Wheel of Knowledge
1986: ''The Marble Queen''

Books of prose

2020: باريس الأورفيّة: السّياحة الأدبية في باريس, United Arab Emirates: Rewayat Books
2018: Orphic Paris, New York, New York Review Books
2018: Paris-Orphée , Paris: Le bruit du temps

Awards and honors

2021 — James Merrill House, Writer-in-Residence
2017 — American Academy of Arts and Letters, Elected Member
2016 — American Academy of Arts and Letters, Award of Merit Medal in Poetry
2014 — Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, Fellow
2012 — The Thom Gunn Award for Poetry for Touch, Publishing Triangle
2012 — The Jackson Poetry Prize, Poets & Writers
2011 — Harvard University Phi Beta Kappa poet
2011 — Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Award in Poetry for Pierce the Skin
2010 — American Academy of Arts & Sciences, elected member
2009 — Sara Teasdale Award in Poetry, Wellesley College
2009 — National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship
2008 — Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Blackbird and Wolf, Academy of American Poets
2008 — Ambassador Book Award in Poetry for Blackbird and Wolf, English-Speaking Union of the United States
2008 — Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry for Blackbird and Wolf
2008 — Lambda Literary Award in Poetry for Blackbird and Wolf
2007 — United States Artists USA Hildreth/Williams Fellow, Literature
2004 — Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Middle Earth
2004 — John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
2004 — Award in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters
2004 — Finalist, Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Middle Earth
2004 — Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Award in Poetry for Middle Earth
2004 — Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry for Middle Earth
2001 — Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Creative Artist Fellowship
2000 — Berlin Prize, American Academy in Berlin
1995 — Rome Prize in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters
1993 — National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship
1989 — Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
1985 — Ingram Merrill Foundation Award

Personal life

Cole is openly gay, though in his early work he turned to "nature as a mask for writing about private feelings." He came out as he "felt a need to speak as a gay man, since until recently we were not encouraged by society to love one another, marry, and have children. So if I have an ethics, it is simply to be true, but never at the expense of original language."