Jean Valentine (April 27, 1934 – December 29, 2020) was an Americanpoet and theNew York State Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010.[1] Her poetry collection,Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003, was awarded the 2004National Book Award for Poetry.[2]
Her most recent book,Shirt In Heaven, was published in 2015. Before that,Break the Glass, published in 2010, was a finalist for the 2011Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.[4]
Valentine's first book,Dream Barker (Yale University Press, 1965), was chosen in 1964 for theYale Series of Younger Poets and won the competition the following year.[5] She published poems widely in literary journals and magazines, includingThe New Yorker,[6] andHarper's Magazine,[7] andThe American Poetry Review. Valentine was one of five poets, includingCharles Wright,Russell Edson,James Tate andLouise Glück, whose work Lee Upton considered critically inThe Muse of Abandonment: Origin, Identity, Mastery in Five American Poets (Bucknell University Press, 1998).[8] She held residencies fromYaddo, theMacDowell Colony,[9]Ucross, and the Lannan foundation,[10] among others.
Publishers Weekly Review ofDoor in the Mountain by Reed Business Information (Accessed via theSeattle Public Library and Syndetic Solutions, Inc.)
Weiner, Tim. "James Chace, Foreign Policy Thinker, Is Dead at 72".The New York Times (Late East Coast edition), October 11, 2004, p. B.7. (Accessed via ProQuest, Document ID 710384891)
