Ruth Stone
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main otherScript error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image Ruth Stone (June 8, 1915 – November 19, 2011) was an American poet.[1]
Life and poetry
Stone was born in Roanoke, Virginia and lived there until age 6, when her family moved back to her parents' hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana.[2][3] She attended the University of Illinois. Her first marriage was to John Clapp in 1935,[2] and they had one daughter.[3] Her second marriage was to professor and poet Walter Stone, in 1944,[2] with whom she had two daughters.[3] Walter Stone, who served in World War II, received a PhD from Harvard University, and taught at University of Illinois, and then at Vassar College.[4] Walter Stone committed suicide in 1959; this tragedy shaped the path of Ruth Stone's life, as she sought ways to support herself and her daughters by teaching poetry at universities across the United States.
Her work is distinguished by its tendency to draw imagery and language from the natural sciences.
Stone died at her home in Goshen, Vermont, on November 19, 2011.[5] She was buried near the raspberry bushes behind her Goshen home.[6]
Career
Stone's verse was published widely in periodicals, and she was the author of thirteen books of poetry.[7]
In 1990 Stone became a professor of English and Creative Writing at Binghamton University, and retired from this position at the age of 85.[3]
Early on, Stone's work was recognized by editors.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". While her husband was teaching at Vassar College, Stone received the Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry.
House in Goshen, Vermont
When Stone received the Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry, she and Walter used the funds to buy a house in Goshen, Vermont, expecting that it would be a place to go in the summers, and to eventually retire.[4] The house became a refuge for Stone after Walter's death, and over the years, became an intellectual center for her students and other poets.[4]
Awards
- Poetry Magazine Bess Hoken Prize, 1953[2]
- Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry, 1956[8]
- Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, 1963-1965[2]
- Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, 1965Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry, 1971[9]
- Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry, 1975[9]
- Delmore Schwartz Award, 1983[2]
- Whiting Award, 1986[2]
- Paterson Poetry Prize, 1988Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Cerf Lifetime Achievement Award, State of VermontScript error: No such module "Unsubst".
- National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry for Ordinary Words, 1999Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Eric Mathieu King Award from the Academy of American Poets, 1999Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- National Book Award for In the Next Galaxy, 2002Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Wallace Stevens Award, Academy of American Poets, 2002Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Poet Laureate of Vermont, 2007Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for What Love Comes To: New and Selected Poems, 2009Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Legacy
Stone's long-time residence in Goshen, Vermont was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Her heirs (both literary and family) — including her granddaughter, poet and visual artist Bianca Stone[10] — have established a foundation to convert the property into a writer's retreat.[11]
Paintbrush: A Journal of Poetry and Translation 27 (2000/2001) was devoted entirely to Stone's work.
The Ruth Stone Poetry Prize awarded by The Vermont College of Fine Arts and their literary journal Hunger Mountain is in its sixth year.[12]
Stone's daughters Phoebe Stone and Abigail Stone, and her granddaughters Hillery Stone and Bianca Stone, are all published writers.
Cultural references
The voice of Ruth Stone reading her poem "Be Serious" is featured in the film USA The Movie.[13]
A documentary film by Nora Jacobson, Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Female Mind, was released in 2022.[14]
Bibliography
- What Love Comes To: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books, UK edition, 2009, Template:ISBN
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". —finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize[15]
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".; Copper Canyon Press, 2007, Template:ISBN
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". winner of the National Book Award[16]
- Ordinary Words, Paris Press, 2000, Template:ISBN winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
- Simplicity, Paris Press, 1996, Template:ISBN
- Who is the Widow's Muse?, Yellow Moon Press, 1991, Template:ISBN
- The Solution Alembic Press, Ltd., 1989, Template:ISBN
- Second Hand Coat: Poems New and Selected 1987; Yellow Moon Press, 1991, Template:ISBN
- American Milk, From Here Press, 1986, Template:ISBN
- Cheap: New Poems and Ballads, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975, Template:ISBN
- Unknown Messages Nemesis Press, 1973
- Topography and Other Poems Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971, Template:ISBN
- In an Iridescent Time, Harcourt, Brace, 1959
Archive
Ruth Stone's papers reside at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.
References
External links
- Ruth Stone Foundation
- Ruth Stone Biog and audio files from the Poetry Foundation
- Ruth Stone from the Academy of American Poets
- Profile at The Whiting Foundation
- "What Love Comes To", Joe Ahearn, Cold Front, September 3, 2008
- "The Imagined Galaxies of Ruth Stone", NPR
- "Ruth Stone", Narrative Magazine
- "On the Road to Paradise: An Interview with Ruth Stone", The Drunken Boat, Rebecca Seiferle
- TED - Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the way Ruth Stone has "caught" poems that were "searching" for an author
- In Memoriam of Ruth Stone, written by her daughter Abigail Stone from THEthe Poetry Blog
- Template:Trim Template:Replace on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., September 2008
Template:Authority control Template:VT Poets Laureate
- ↑ Copper Canyon Press Bio
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- ↑ "Riverviews' 'Rebus' exhibit showcases poetry comics". BURG, March 5, 2014 Brent Wells.
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- ↑ "Poetry". Past winners & finalists by category. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
- ↑
"National Book Awards – 2002". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
(With acceptance speech by Stone, announcement by Poetry Panel Chair Dave Smith, and essay by Katie Peterson from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
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- National Book Award winners
- Poets laureate of Vermont
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- Writers from Roanoke, Virginia
- 1915 births
- 2011 deaths
- American women poets
- 20th-century American poets
- 20th-century American women writers
- Binghamton University faculty
- American women academics
- 21st-century American women