Life

As a girl, Finkelstein led what she calls “a bifurcated life, half American, half some idea of upper bourgeois European society...This upbringing maintains itself in many of my poems as mood, or attitude, or actual subject matter”.

She was married at nineteen, and had three children.

She graduated from Goddard College

Goddard College

Goddard College is a private, liberal arts college located in Plainfield, Vermont, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Goddard College currently operates on an intensive low-residency model...

 with an M.F.A., where she studied with Ellen Bryant Voigt

Ellen Bryant Voigt

Ellen Bryant Voigt is an American poet. She has published six collections of poetry and a collection of craft essays. Her poetry collection Shadow of Heaven was a finalist for the National Book Award and Kyrie was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poetry has been...

, Robert Hass

Robert Hass

Robert L. Hass is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He was awarded the 2007 National Book Award and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Time and Materials.-Life:...

, and Michael Ryan

Michael Ryan

- Sports :* Mike Ryan , former New Zealand marathon and long-distance runner* Michael Ryan , America baseball outfielder* Mike Ryan , former Major League Baseball player...

. She was 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 the MacDowell Colony

MacDowell Colony

The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...

.

In 1999 and 2000, she lived in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, studying Italian Renaissance art.

In 1982, 2001, 2003 she lived in Westport, Massachusetts

Westport, Massachusetts

Westport is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 15,532 at the 2010 census.The village of North Westport lies in the town.- History :...

. She visited Jane Kenyon

Jane Kenyon

Jane Kenyon was an American poet and translator. Her work is often characterized as simple, spare, and emotionally resonant.-Life:...

 shortly before her death.

She has published her work in Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, Fence, Paris Review, Seneca Review, New American Writing, and The American Poetry Review.

She lives in Roswell, Georgia

Roswell, Georgia

Roswell is a city located in northern Fulton County; it is a suburb of northern Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The 2010 Census population was 88,346. It is the eighth largest city in Georgia...

.

Awards

• two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts
  National Endowment for the Arts
  The 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...
  
  
• Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Vermont Arts Council grants
• 1999 Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
  Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
  The Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship is given annually to a U.S.-born poet to spend one year outside North America in a country the recipient feels will most advance his or her work....
  
  
• Fellow at the MacDowell Colony
  MacDowell Colony
  The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
  
  

Ploughshares

Quotes

About the poem, she writes: “I wrote ‘Conjecture Number One Thousand’ while I was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony. It’s a rueful comment on my second marriage and an attempt at checking the longing that lives in my memories. The irony and occasional flippancy replicate much of the marriage’s shape. Being at MacDowell, where my former husband and I had once attended, only heightened the senses of loss and comedy within that loss.”

External links