Diane Ward is a U.S. poet initially associated with the first wave of Language poetry in the 1970s and has actively published into the 21st century, maintaining a presence in various artistic communities for many decades. Born in Washington, DC where she attended the Corcoran School of Art, Ward currently lives in Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

 where she taught poetry in public schools to 1st through 5th graders for many years.

Ward has published more than a dozen works of poetry and has been included in numerous anthologies, among them: Moving Borders and Out of Everywhere along with selections published in The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry

Postmodern American Poetry

Postmodern American Poetry is a 1994 poetry anthology edited by Paul Hoover; it is a Norton anthology published by W. W. Norton & Company. The introduction identifies the use of postmodern with its early mention by Charles Olson, and identifies the field chosen as experimental poetry from after 1945...

 and From the Other Side of the Century

From the Other Side of the Century

From the Other Side of the Century: "A New American Poetry, 1960-1990" is a poetry anthology published in 1994. It was edited by American poet and publisher Douglas Messerli – under his own imprint Sun and Moon Press ISBN 978-1-55713-131-7 – and includes poets from both the U.S...

. She has read widely in the United States, including the District of Columbia Arts Center, Small Press Traffic at New College

New College of California

New College of California was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President, Father John Leary. After 37 years, it ceased operations in early 2008....

 (San Francisco), The Bowery Poetry Club

Bowery Poetry Club

The Bowery Poetry Club is a New York City poetry performance space founded by Bob Holman in 2002. Located at 308 Bowery, between Bleecker and Houston Streets in Manhattan's East Village, the BPC provides a home base for established and upcoming artists...

 and The Poetry Project of St. Mark’s Church

St. Mark's Poetry Project

The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church was founded in 1966 in the East Village of Manhattan by the poet and translator Paul Blackburn, it has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetries for over four decades....

. Ward's work has appeared in dozens of small press publications, including: Crayon, Conjunctions

Conjunctions

Conjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....

, The Paris Review, 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...

, and Raddle Moon.

Ward has received considerable recognition for her work including the California Arts Council Artists Fellowship in Literature, a 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...

 Creative Writing Fellowship, and the San Francisco State University Poetry Center’s Book of the Year Award. Several of her poems (including “Fade on Family”) have been set to music by the Los Angeles composer Michael Webster and she has collaborated with the avant-garde sound performer and musician, Emily Hay.

Selected bibliography

• On Duke Ellington’s Birthday (Washington, D.C.: self-published)
• Trop-i-dom (Washington, D.C.: Jawbone, 1977)
• The Light American (Washington, D.C.: Jawbone, 1979)
• Theory of Emotion (New York: Segue/O Press, 1979)
• Never without One (New York: Roof, 1984)
• Relation (New York: Roof, 1989)
• Human Ceiling (New York: Roof, 1995)
• Imaginary Movie (Elmwood, Connecticut: Potes & Poets Press, 1992)
• Exhibition (Elmwood, Connecticut: Potes & Poets Press, 1995)
• (contributor) Out of Everywhere: linguistically innovative poetry by women in North America & the UK, edited by Maggie O’Sullivan (London: Reality Street Editions, 1996)
• (contributor) Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing by Women, edited by Mary Margaret Sloan (New Jersey: Talisman House, Publishers, 1998)
• Portraits and Maps [with art by Michael C. McMillen] (Piacenza, Italy: ML&NLF, 2000)
• Portrait As If Through My Own Voice (Studio City, California: Margin to Margin, 2001)
• When You Awake (New York: Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs)
• Flim-Yoked Scrim (San Diego: Factory School, 2006)
• No List (No List) (Seeing Eye Books, 2008)
• Belladonna Elders Series No. 8: Jane Sprague / Tina Darragh / Diane Ward (Belladonna, 2009)

Further Reading

• "Ward on Seaton", L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, Volume 3, Number 13 [December 1980] This is a review by Ward of Peter Seaton
  Peter Seaton
  Peter Seaton was a U.S. poet associated with the first wave of Language poetry in the 1970s. During the opening and middle years of Language poetry many of his long prose poems were published, widely read and influential...
  
  's "Piranesi Pointed Up". The review can be accessed online here
• Silliman, Ron
  Ron Silliman
  Ron Silliman is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wrote a single poem, The Alphabet...
  
   (editor). In the American Tree. Orono, Maine: National Poetry Foundation
  National Poetry Foundation
  The National Poetry Foundation is a book publisher founded in 1971 by Carroll F. Terrell who built its reputation with Burton Hatlen at the University of Maine in Orono. Today it publishes poetry by individual authors as well as both journals and scholarship devoted to Ezra Pound and poets in the...
  
  , 1986; reprint ed. with a new afterword, 2002. This groundbreaking anthology of language poetry serves as a very useful primer and includes Ward's poem "Pronouncing"

External links

• The PIP (Project for Innovative Poetry) Biography Archive: Diane Ward includes extensive biographical notes and Ward's poem "Naming the Baby", reprinted from The New Review of Literature, II, no. 2 (April 2005).
• LA-Lit > LA-Lit 8: Diane Ward includes bio and audio files of Ward reading the entire length of her chapbook, When You Awake (New York: Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs), as well as a few pieces from a manuscript in-progress at the time (recorded February 5, 2005)
• Diane Ward Homepage at PennSound extensive audio files available here for various readings Ward as given over the years. These files currently showcase readings from 1982 through 2008
• "Nine-Tenths of Our Body" and "Tender Arc" these two poems by Ward appeared in 1983's Code of Signals, edited by Michael Palmer
  Michael Palmer
  Michael Palmer is an American poet and translator. He attended Harvard University where he earned a BA in French and a MA in Comparative Literature. He has worked extensively with Contemporary dance for over thirty years and has collaborated with many composers and visual artists...
  
  . Here it appears in an e-book
  E-book
  An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
  
  representation (pdf file). Scroll down to "Table of Contents" to find the Ward selections.