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Mark Statman

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Mark Statman
In New Orleans, February 2013.
RelativesKenneth Koch (father-in-law)
Academic background
Education
Academic work
DisciplineCreative writing
Institutions

Mark Statman (1958, New York, NY) is a writer, translator, and poet. He is emeritus Professor of Literary Studies at Eugene Lang College the New School for Liberal Arts in New York City, where he taught from 1985 to 2016.[1] He has published 13 books, 8 of poetry, 3 of translation, and 2 on pedagogy and poetry. His writing has appeared in numerous anthologies and reviews. Statman is a dual national of the United States and Mexico.

Life

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Statman was born in New York City and grew up in Queens and Long Island, NY. He studied at Columbia University in New York City with Kenneth Koch, David Shapiro, Barbara Stoler Miller, Burton Watson, and Elaine Pagels, graduating in 1980.[2][3] His book of translations, Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa (2012) (a member of the Generation of '27 and part of the surrealist movement in Spain along with Federico García Lorca),[4] was a finalist for the National Translation Award, 2013. In his preface to Black Tulips, Willis Barnstone wrote, "Statman's exquisite version is our gift.[5]" His book of translations of Federico García Lorca's Poet In New York,[2] along with writer and translator Pablo Medina,[2] was called by John Ashbery, "The definitive version of Lorca's masterpiece, in language that is as alive and molten today as was the original."[6] He also has taught creative writing to primary and secondary school students on local and national levels and written extensively on that work, included in his book Listener in the Snow: The Practice and Teaching of Poetry (2000).[7]

Statman has recently translated several contemporary Mexican poets, among them Maria Baranda,[8] Efraín Velasco Sosa[9] Sergio Loo,[10] and Marianna Stephania. He has also translated José Emilio Pacheco and Homero Aridjis.[11]

From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, in addition to his work as a poet and teacher, Statman worked as a journalist and cultural critic, contributing to, among others, The Nation, 'In These Times, The Guardian, and The Village Voice. He was a Contributing Writer to Cover from 1989 to 1994.

Statman has collaborated with other artists, including painter and writer Katherine Koch and composers Dennis Tobenski[12] and Robin O. Berger.

In November 2017, the board of trustees at The New School promoted Statman to emeritus Professor, making him the first professor given this distinction at Eugene Lang College, the university's undergraduate division.

About Statman's poetry, David Shapiro writes, “It is hard to compare it to anything else,” William Corbett that his poetry is “America's grand plain style descended from William Carlos Williams and James Schuyler,” and Joseph Lease, “Statman gives language as commitment, commitment as imagination, imagination as soul-making.”[13] Anselm Berrigan notes his “spare, concise, searching poems” in which “the present is inexhaustibly on the move.” Joseph Stroud writes “Statman's voice is a kind...that reminds me of the ancient Greek poets of the anthology or the concise voicings of Antonio Machado.” Charles Bernstein: “These are poems of transition as a form of mediation and meditation. Mark Statman's short lines mark the flux of sentiment as openness to what's next.” Paul Hoover: “...realism in the most beautiful sense. We are taken to the living moment as it passes.” Major Jackson: “...an eclectic imagination that redeems the conventional exploits of language and all the dead zones around us...consecrates Statman's forever voice.” Aliki Barnstone calls him “a consummate poet-translator.”[14][15] In noting the influence of Williams, Pound, and Creeley, the critic Eileen Murphy wrote, of Exile Home, "The book has the almost-hypnotic effect of one big, sprawling poem--reminding me of Whitman's Leaves of Grass or Ginsberg's "Howl."[16]

Statman's most recent book, Hechizo (Lavender Ink, 2022) is his most acclaimed. Poet John Koethe called it “an endless source of delight.” Joanna Fuhrman wrote: “His words cast a spell on the reader…” and Michael Anania: “This is a powerful collection, personal, in the most richly evolved sense.”

With the publication of Poet in New York in 2008 and the appearance of Tourist at a Miracle in 2010, Statman, who had primarily read his poetry and talked about his work as a teacher of creative writing in the New York City and tri-state area and at academic and professional meetings, began appearing at national and international venues. He has continued to read with the subsequent publications of poetry books and poetry in translation. Among the more prominent sites are the Times Cheltenham Festival (UK),[17] the Miami Book Fair International,[18] US Poets in Mexico,[19] and the Mundial Poético de Montevideo (UY).[20]

Statman is married to painter and writer Katherine Koch,[21] the daughter of poet Kenneth Koch.[21] His son is New York anti-folk musician Cannonball Statman.[22][23]

In September 2016, Statman retired from teaching to devote himself full-time to writing. He lives in San Pedro Ixtlahuaca and Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico.

[24]

Published works

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  • Chicatanas: Selected Poems, Subpress International, 2023 (published simultaneously as Chicatanas: Antología Personal, translator, Efraín Velaso)
  • Hechizo (poems), Lavender Ink, 2022, ISBN 978-1-944884-96-3
  • Exile Home (poems), Lavender Ink, 2019. ISBN 978-1-944884-61-1
  • Never Made in America: Selected Poems from Martín Barea Mattos (poems, essay, translations), Lavender Ink/diálogos, 2017. ISBN 978-1-944884-17-8
  • That Train Again (poems), Lavender Ink, 2015. ISBN 978-1-935084-81-5
  • A Map of the Winds (poems), Lavender Ink, 2013. ISBN 978-1-935084-43-3
  • Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa (translations, essay) University of New Orleans Press, 2012. ISBN 978-1-60801-088-2
  • Tourist at a Miracle (poems), Hanging Loose Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-934909-16-4
  • Poet in New York, Federico García Lorca, (Pablo Medina and Mark Statman, translators), Grove Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8021-4353-2
  • Listener in the Snow: The Practice and Teaching of Poetry, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2000. ISBN 978-0-915924-59-2
  • The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing (co-edited with Christian McEwen), Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2000. ISBN 978-0-915924-63-9
  • The Red Skyline: Poems, Work and Lives Press, 1987. ASIN B001MK1KKQ

Awards and fellowships

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References

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  1. ^ "Mark Statman - Associate Professor of Writing". Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Parhizkar, Maryam. "Statman, Medina Translate García Lorca's Poeta en Nueva York". Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  3. ^ "Bookshelf". Columbia College Today. Summer 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  4. ^ "Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa". Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  5. ^ Statman, Mark (2012). Black Tulips:The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa. University of New Orleans Press. ISBN 978-1608010882.
  6. ^ García Lorca, Federico; Hirsch, Edward (2007-12-21). Poet in New York: A Bilingual Edition (Bilingual ed.). Grove Press. ISBN 9780802143532.
  7. ^ "Writers Who Give Back". Pinterest. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  8. ^ Baranda, María (2021). The new world written selected poems. New Haven. ISBN 978-0-300-25812-7. OCLC 1255714288.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ "Current Issue". NEW AMERICAN WRITING. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  10. ^ "A folio of poems by Sergio Loo, translated by Efraín Velasco & Mark Statman". terly.com. 14 July 2019. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  11. ^ Statman, Mark (2000). Listener in the Snow: The Practice and Teaching of Poetry (Revised ed.). New York: Teachers & Writers Collaborative. pp. 14, 51–52. ISBN 0915924595.
  12. ^ "meditation". Dennis Tobenski, composer/vocalist. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  13. ^ Statman, Mark (2010). Tourist at a Miracle. New York: Hanging Loose. ISBN 978-1-934909-16-4.
  14. ^ Statman, Mark (2013). A Map of the Winds. New Orleans: Lavender Ink. ISBN 978-1-935084-81-5.
  15. ^ "Exile Home". Lavender Ink / Diálogos. 2019-02-01. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  16. ^ July 1, Eileen Murphy on; Poetry, 2020 in (2020-07-02). "Post-modern "Happy Place": Exile Home by Mark Statman". Cultural Weekly. Retrieved 2020-09-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ "The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 2011 Brochure". Issuu. 11 August 2011. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
  18. ^ "Miami Book Fair International Schedule 11/14-21/10". The Soul Of Miami. 2010-11-04. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
  19. ^ "U.S. Poets in Mexico Conference | Poets and Writers". www.pw.org. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
  20. ^ elpais.com.uy (19 April 2016). "Una semana con poetas de distintos idiomas". www.elpais.com.uy (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2016-05-13.
  21. ^ a b "Mark Statman, Writer, Weds Katherine Koch - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 1982-08-30. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  22. ^ Ross, Stuart. "Cobourg house concert featuring Cannonball Statman, Mallory Feuer and li'l ol' me". Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  23. ^ Krieger, Ben. "NYC Antifolk as it's supposed to be: Cannonball Statman". Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  24. ^ Garcia, Odalis (2016-10-22). "Lang Writing Professor Mark Statman Moves To Mexico To Focus On Writing". New School Free Press. NSFP.
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