Anna Rabinowitz
Encyclopedia
Anna Rabinowitz is an American poet
, librettist and editor
. She has published four volumes of poetry, most recently, Present Tense (Omnidawn, 2010), selected by The Huffington Post
as one of the best poetry books of 2010. Anis Shivani of The Huffington Post made this statement regarding her work: “Language, our only tool against barbarism, becomes a colonized ghost town. Rabinowitz has the audacity to recognize how battered we have become by the inextricable link between desire and destruction.” (Anis Shivani)
Rabinowitz’s previous books include:
The Wanton Sublime: A Florilegium of Whethers and Wonders (Tupelo Press, 2006), in collaboration with American Opera Projects
, has been developed into a monodrama
with music by Tarik O'Regan
and libretto by Rabinowitz. Her book-length acrostic poem, Darkling:A Poem (Tupelo Press, 2001) has been performed as an experimental, multi-media opera theatre work produced by American Opera Projects, with music by Stefan Weisman and Lee Hoiby
, and libretto by Rabinowitz. Albany Records
will release Darkling internationally as a CD in 2011.
Rabinowitz is currently editor emerita of American Letters & Commentary where she was editor and publisher from 1990 to 2007. She has been a vice-president of the Board of Governors of the Poetry Society of America
since 1992 and a vice-president of the Board of Directors of American Opera Projects since 2006. She was a faculty member of The New School
from 1994 to 1997. Born in Brooklyn
, NY, she earned her B.A. from Brooklyn College
, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
, and her M.F.A. from Columbia University
. She has been a fellow at Yaddo
and at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
She has published in literary journals including Atlantic Monthly, Boston Review
, The Paris Review, Colorado Review
, Southwest Review
, Denver Quarterly
, Sulfur
, LIT, VOLT, and Verse.
, The New York Times
"…stretches the very definition of opera
...This is a profound, provocative piece of musical theater – one that I hope will occasion a great many opera lovers to stray from habitual paths. As specific as the context of Darkling may be, its message is ultimately universal.” — Steve Smith, Night After Night (blog of NY Times, Time Out NY music critic)
“...poetic opera...the zipper boot of American arts and letters...a Reebok
bump with a GPS device attached to the laces...[a] powerful portrayal of the march to the Final Solution
" — John Freeman, Poetry Foundation
(2006)
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, librettist and editor
Editor
The term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...
. She has published four volumes of poetry, most recently, Present Tense (Omnidawn, 2010), selected by The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
as one of the best poetry books of 2010. Anis Shivani of The Huffington Post made this statement regarding her work: “Language, our only tool against barbarism, becomes a colonized ghost town. Rabinowitz has the audacity to recognize how battered we have become by the inextricable link between desire and destruction.” (Anis Shivani)
Rabinowitz’s previous books include:
- The Wanton Sublime: A Florilegium of Whethers and Wonders (Tupelo PressTupelo PressTupelo Press is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1999. It produced its first titles in 2001, publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction...
, 2006) (“The many facets of approach in this book create a theater of ethereal presences, somewhat like the enchantments one finds in a box by Joseph CornellJoseph CornellJoseph Cornell was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage...
” – Talisman) - Darkling (Tupelo Press, 2001) (“…a daring book-length masterpiece.” - Jacket MagazineJacket (magazine)Jacket is an on-line literary periodical edited by the Australian poet John Tranter. The first issue was in October 1997.Each new number of the magazine is posted at the Web site piece by piece until the new issue is full, when the next issue starts. Past issues remain posted as well...
) (“This dense, unsettling volume makes a unique contribution to holocaust literature.” – Publishers WeeklyPublishers WeeklyPublishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
) - At the Site of Inside Out (University of Massachusetts PressUniversity of Massachusetts PressThe University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinary faculty committee....
, 1997) (“…language at a height and experience at a depth that the whole art suddenly appears as a plinth on the plain of American letters.” – Molly PeacockMolly PeacockMolly Peacock is an American-Canadian poet, essayist and creative nonfiction writer. She is an alumna of Binghamton University.-Career:...
)
The Wanton Sublime: A Florilegium of Whethers and Wonders (Tupelo Press, 2006), in collaboration with American Opera Projects
American Opera Projects
American Opera Projects is a professional opera company based in New York City, NY and is a member of OPERA America, the Fort Greene Association, and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York]] . The company's primary mission is to develop and present new works...
, has been developed into a monodrama
Monodrama
A monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character.- Monodrama in opera :...
with music by Tarik O'Regan
Tarik O'Regan
Tarik O'Regan , full name Tarik Hamilton O'Regan , is a British composer, partly of Algerian extraction. His compositions number over 90 and are partially represented on 22 recordings which have been recognised with two GRAMMY nominations. He is also the recipient of two British Composer Awards...
and libretto by Rabinowitz. Her book-length acrostic poem, Darkling:A Poem (Tupelo Press, 2001) has been performed as an experimental, multi-media opera theatre work produced by American Opera Projects, with music by Stefan Weisman and Lee Hoiby
Lee Hoiby
Lee Henry Hoiby was an American composer and classical pianist. Best known as a composer of operas and songs, he was a disciple of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Like Menotti, his works championed lyricism during a time when such compositions were deemed old fashioned and irrelevant to modern society...
, and libretto by Rabinowitz. Albany Records
Albany Records
Albany Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Peter Kermani in 1987, and is based in Albany, New York.-External links:**...
will release Darkling internationally as a CD in 2011.
Rabinowitz is currently editor emerita of American Letters & Commentary where she was editor and publisher from 1990 to 2007. She has been a vice-president of the Board of Governors of the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
since 1992 and a vice-president of the Board of Directors of American Opera Projects since 2006. She was a faculty member of The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
from 1994 to 1997. Born in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, NY, she earned her B.A. from Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...
, and her M.F.A. from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. She has been a fellow at Yaddo
Yaddo
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400 acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment."...
and at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
She has published in literary journals including Atlantic Monthly, Boston Review
Boston Review
Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
, The Paris Review, Colorado Review
Colorado Review
Colorado Review is a major American literary journal published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.The journal presents the annual Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction...
, Southwest Review
Southwest Review
The Southwest Review is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. It is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States of America . The current editor-in-chief is Willard Spiegelman.The journal was formerly known as the...
, Denver Quarterly
Denver Quarterly
The Denver Quarterly is a literary journal based at the University of Denver. Founded in 1966 by novelist John Williams.-Best American Short Stories:...
, Sulfur
Sulfur (magazine)
Sulfur magazine was an influential, small literary magazine founded in 1981 by poet and award-winning translator Clayton Eshleman and ran for 46 issues until the spring of 2000...
, LIT, VOLT, and Verse.
Honors and awards
- 1 2001 A National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellow - 2 1996 Juniper Prize, for At the Site of Inside Out
- 3 1993 Black Warrior ReviewBlack Warrior ReviewThe Black Warrior Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1974 and based at the University of Alabama. Work appearing in BWR has been anthologized in the Pushcart Prize collection, The Best American Short Stories , Best American Poetry, New Stories from the South. The Spring 1978 issue...
Literary Prize
Poetry
- Present Tense (Omnidawn, 2010) ISBN 978-1-890650-45-2
- The Wanton Sublime: A Florilegium of Whethers and Wonders (Tupelo Press, 2006) ISBN 1-932195-39-4, ISBN 978-1-932195-39-2
- Darkling: A Poem (Tupelo Press, 2001) ISBN 0-9710310-4-5
- At the Site of Inside Out (University of Massachusetts Press, 1997) Winner of the Juniper Prize, ISBN 1-55849-093-0, ISBN 1-55849-092-2
Anthologies
- The Best American PoetryThe Best American PoetryThe Best American Poetry series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems.The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year...
1989 (Macmillan Publishing CompanyMacmillan PublishersMacmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, 1989) - Life on the Line (Negative Capability Press, 1990)
- KGB Bar Book of Poems (William Morrow, 2000)
- International Millennium Anthology 2000
- Poetry After 9/11 (Melville HouseMelville House PublishingMelville House Publishing is an independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 by the husband and wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey, a location Johnson jokingly called "the Left Bank" of New York City...
, 2002) - The Poets’ Grimm (Story Line Press, 2003)
- Poetry Daily: 366 Poems from the World’s Most Popular Poetry Website (Sourcebooks, 2003)
- Imaginary Poets (Tupelo Press, 2005)
- The Paradelle (Red Hen PressRed Hen PressRed Hen Press is an American non-profit press specializing in the publication of literary fiction and poetry located in Pasadena, California. Founded by Kate Gale, the mission of Red Hen Press is to discover, publish, and promote works of literary excellence that have been overlooked by mainstream...
, spring 2006) - Blood to Remember (Time Being Books, 2007)
- Women Poets on Mentorship (University of Iowa PressUniversity of Iowa PressThe University of Iowa Press is a university press that is part of the University of Iowa.Established in 1969, the University of Iowa Press publishes books that fill the needs of scholars and students throughout the world, poetry and short fiction, and works of creative nonfiction...
, 2008) - After Shocks, The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events (Sante Lucia Books, 2008)
Critical Essays
- "We Take With Us What We Leave Behind" (Many Mountains Moving, A Tribute to W.S. Merwin, Volume IV, Number 2, 2001)
- "Barbara Guest: Notes Toward Painterly Osmosis" (Women’s Studies, Harwood Academic Publishers, Vol. 30, Number 1, 2001)
- "On Collaboration" (American Letters & Commentary, Nineteen, 2008)
Excerpts from the monodrama, The Wanton Sublime
- An Evening of Monodramas at The Players NYC, NYNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(May 2011) - An Evening of Monodramas at South Oxford Space, NY (May 2011)
- The Woven Child, Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum, NY (January 2010)
World Premiere Production
- Presented by American Opera Projects at the East 13th Street Theater, NY (3 week run off-Broadway run, 2006)
Touring Concert Version
- Freie Universität Berlin, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, in conjunction with the opening of Shoah Archives (June 2007) - Alexsandre Fredo Theatre, GnieznoGnieznoGniezno is a city in central-western Poland, some 50 km east of Poznań, inhabited by about 70,000 people. One of the Piasts' chief cities, it was mentioned by 10th century A.D. sources as the capital of Piast Poland however the first capital of Piast realm was most likely Giecz built around...
, PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(June 2007) - VOX 2007, presented by New York City OperaNew York City OperaThe New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
at the Skirball Center for Performing ArtsSkirball Center for Performing ArtsThe Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is an 850-seat theater in Manhattan, New York owned by New York University. The Skirball Center is the largest performing arts facility south of 42nd Street. Recently, the Skirball Center hosted speeches on foreign policy by John Kerry and Al Gore...
, New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, NY (2007)
Semi-Staged Concert
- The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Center City Opera at The Lantern TheaterLantern Theater CompanyLantern Theater Company is a not-for-profit regional theater founded in 1994 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Led by founding artistic director Charles McMahon and managing director Anne Shuff, the Lantern produces a mix of classics, modern, and original works for the stage, an audience enrichment...
, PA (2009) - 21c Arias at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, NY
- The German Consulate General, NY (June 2006)
- Choral Concert performed by St. Joseph's Choir and Flux Quartet at St. Joseph's Church, NY (November 2006)
Performance and Discussion
- Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum, NY (November 2005)
Critical Reception
"Brave and sensitive" — Anthony TommasiniAnthony Tommasini
-Early years:Tommasini was born in Brooklyn around 1948 and raised on Long Island. He was admitted to Oberlin College's Conservatory of Music, but chose to matriculate at Yale University in order to obtain a broader liberal arts education...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
"…stretches the very definition of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
...This is a profound, provocative piece of musical theater – one that I hope will occasion a great many opera lovers to stray from habitual paths. As specific as the context of Darkling may be, its message is ultimately universal.” — Steve Smith, Night After Night (blog of NY Times, Time Out NY music critic)
“...poetic opera...the zipper boot of American arts and letters...a Reebok
Reebok
Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
bump with a GPS device attached to the laces...[a] powerful portrayal of the march to the Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
" — John Freeman, Poetry Foundation
Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation is a Chicago-based American foundation created to promote poetry in the wider culture. It was formed from Poetry magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Ruth Lilly....
(2006)
External links
- Author Website annarabinowitz.com
- Omnidawn omnidawn.com
- Tupelo Press tupelopress.org
- University of Massachusetts Press umpress.edu
- American Opera Projects, The Wanton Sublime americanoperaprojects.org
- American Opera Projects, Darkling americanoperaprojects.org
- Tarik O'Regan tarikoregan.com
- Stefan Weisman stefanweisman.com