Marilyn Nelson
Marilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator, biographer, and children's book author. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the former Poet Laureate of Connecticut. She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Frost Medal. From 1978 to 1994, she published under the name Marilyn Nelson Waniek. She is the author or translator of more than twenty books and five chapbooks of poetry for adults and children. While most of her work deals with historical subjects, in 2014 she published a memoir, named one of NPR's Best Books of 2014, entitled How I Discovered Poetry.
Early life
Nelson was born on April 26, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Melvin M. Nelson, a Tuskegee Airman and a U.S. serviceman in the Air Force, and Johnnie Mitchell Nelson, a teacher and pianist. She grew up on military bases and moved all across the United States throughout her childhood. She began writing while in elementary school, yet discovered her love for poetry while attending a segregated middle school in Texas. Here, she was introduced to the work of African-American poets.Nelson earned a B.A. degree from the University of California-Davis, an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1979.
Career
In 1978, Nelson became a professor of English at the University of Connecticut and published her first book, the poetry collection For the Body. From 2001 to 2006, she served as poet laureate of the State of Connecticut. During this time, she also founded the Soul Mountain Retreat. She retired professor emeritus from the University of Connecticut in 2002 yet continued to actively write.Nelson's poetry has a dominant family aspect, recovery for African-American history as well as the search for sacred in everyday life. She is also known for incorporating the African-American oral tradition into her work. Her poetry collections include The Homeplace, which won the 1992 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the 1991 National Book Award; and The Fields Of Praise: New And Selected Poems, which won the Poets' Prize in 1999 and was a finalist for the 1997 National Book Award.
Her honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, and a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2011, she spent a semester as a Brown Foundation Fellow at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. In 2012, the Poetry Society of America awarded her the Frost Medal. In 2013, Nelson was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Published works
Poetry books
For the Body Mama's Promises The Homeplace Magnificat The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems Carver: A Life in Poems Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem The Cachoeira Tales, and Other Poems A Wreath for Emmett Till The Freedom Business: Including A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story Of The Greatest All-Girl Swing Band In The World Faster Than Light: New and Selected Poems, 1996-2011 My Seneca Village The Meeting House American Ace- ''How I Discovered Poetry''
Chapbooks
Partial Truth She-Devil Circus Triolets for Triolet- ''The Freedom Business: Connecticut Landscapes Through the Eyes of Venture Smith''
Collaborative books
The Cat Walked Through the Casserole Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color Pemba's Song: A Ghost Story- ''Mrs. Nelson's Class''
Translations
Hundreds of Hens and Other Poems for Children by Halfdan Rasmussen Hecuba by Euripides, in Euripides I, Penn Greek Drama Series The Thirteenth Month by Inge Pedersen The Ladder by Halfdan Rasmussen A Little Bitty Man and Other Poems for the Very Young by Halfdan RasmussenBooks for young children
The Cat Walked Through the Casserole Beautiful Ballerina Snook Alone- ''Ostrich and Lark''
Anthology contributions
- ''Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology''
Honors and awards
- Kent fellowship, 1976
- National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, 1981, 1990
- Connecticut Arts Award, 1990
- National Book Award finalist for poetry, 1991
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 1992
- Fulbright teaching fellowship, 1995
- National Book Award finalist for poetry, 1997
- The Poets Award, 1998
- Poets' Prize, 1999, for The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems
- Contemplative Practices fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 2000
- Poet Laureate for the State of Connecticut, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, 2001-2006
- J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, 2001 for Carver: A Life in Poems
- Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, 2001 for Carver: A Life in Poems
- National Book Award finalist in young-people's literature category, 2001 for Carver: A Life in Poems
- Coretta Scott King Honor Book designation, 2002 for Carver: A Life in Poems
- Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for Nonfiction, 2002 for Carver: A Life in Poems
- Newbery Honor designation, 2002 for Carver: A Life in Poems
- Coretta Scott King Book Award, 2005, for Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem
- Two Pushcart prizes
- Michael L. Printz Award honor book designation, 2006 for A Wreath for Emmett Till
- Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award honor book designation, 2006 for A Wreath for Emmett Till
- Coretta Scott King Honor Award, 2006 for A Wreath for Emmett Till
- Lifetime Achievement honor, Connecticut Book Awards, 2006,
- NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, 2017.
- Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, 2019. Noted for being "a renowned poet, author, and translator who has worked steadily throughout her career to highlight topics that aren’t often talked about in poetry. Her literary work, spanning more than four decades, examines complex issues around race, feminism, and the ongoing trauma of slavery in American life in narratives poised between song and speech."