{{Short description|American poet & librettist}} {{Distinguish|Alice Godman}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | honorific_prefix = The Reverend | name = Alice Goodman | image = Alice_Goodman,_History_is_Our_Mother_(ISBN_9781681370644).jpeg | imagesize = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1958}} | birth_place = St. Paul, Minnesota | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Librettist, priest | nationality = American | period = | genre = poetry, opera | subject = | movement = | notableworks = ''Nixon In China'', ''The Death of Klinghoffer'' | spouse = {{marriage|Sir Geoffrey Hill|1987|2016|reason=died}} | children = 1 }} [[File:Dortmund Kampstr Nixon in China IMG 20230315 1145.jpg|thumb|Poster for a production of ''Nixon in China'' at Oper Dortmund, 2023]] '''Alice Goodman, Lady Hill''' (born 1958<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp124242/alice-goodman | title=Alice Goodman - National Portrait Gallery }}</ref>) is an American poet and librettist. She is also an Anglican priest, working in England.<ref>White (30 August 2005) p. E2</ref>
==Biography== Goodman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended and graduated from Breck School. She studied English and American literature at Harvard University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1980, and Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a further BA in 1982.<ref name="Crockford" /> During the 1980s she published poems in venues such as ''Poetry''<ref>{{Cite web | title = The Chemical Blonde by Alice Goodman {{!}} Poetry Magazine | author = | work = Poetry Magazine | date = | access-date = 21 January 2022 | url = https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=35074 | quote = }}</ref> and the ''London Review of Books''.<ref>{{Cite journal | title = Alice Goodman · Poem: 'As with the commander of an army so is it with the mistress of a house' · LRB 3 December 1981 | last = Goodman | first = Alice | journal = London Review of Books | date = 3 December 1981 | volume = 03 | issue = 22 | access-date = 21 January 2022 | url = https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v03/n22/alice-goodman/as-with-the-commander-of-an-army-so-is-it-with-the-mistress-of-a-house | quote = }}</ref> She received her Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from the Boston University School of Theology in 1997.<ref name="Crockford">{{Crockford| surname = Goodman | forenames = Alice Abigail | id = people | accessed = 30 January 2026}}</ref>
She wrote the libretti for the first two operas of John Adams, ''Nixon in China'' and ''The Death of Klinghoffer''. Goodman continued writing with Adams on his next opera, ''Doctor Atomic'', but withdrew from this project after a year. A decade after the eventual premiere of that opera, she wrote the text for a choral cantata by Tarik O'Regan (''A Letter of Rights'', 2015), commissioned as part of the celebrations for the 800th anniversary of ''Magna Carta''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Celebrating Magna Carta in music|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-33125739|access-date=June 19, 2015|publisher=BBC|date=June 14, 2015}}</ref>
In 2017, NYRB published Goodman's texts for ''Nixon'' and ''Klinghoffer'', along with her translation of the libretto for ''The Magic Flute'', as the collection ''History is Our Mother: Three Libretti'', with an introduction by James Williams.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=NYRB|url=https://www.nyrb.com/products/history-is-our-mother|title=Alice Goodman, History is Our Mother|year=2017|access-date=21 February 2026}}</ref>
She was raised as a Reform Jew, and converted to Christianity as an adult, in 1989.<ref>{{Cite news | title = She Gave Words to Opera's Nixon (Published 2017)| author = | work = The New York Times| date = 22 August 2017| access-date = 12 January 2022| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/arts/music/nixon-china-john-adams-alice-goodman-peter-sellars.html| quote = 1989| last1 = May| first1 = Thomas}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Berman|first1=Paul|title=Klinghoffer at the Met|url=http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/186424/klinghoffer-at-the-met/3|accessdate=26 October 2014|publisher=Tablet|date=October 23, 2014}}</ref> From 2000 to 2001, she trained for ordination at Ripon College Cuddesdon.<ref name="Crockford" /> She was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 2001 and as a priest in 2002.<ref name="Crockford" /> In 2006, Alice Goodman took up the post of chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge,<ref>Trinity College</ref> and in 2011 became Rector of a group of parishes in Cambridgeshire including Fulbourn.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fulbournpc.org/places-of-worship/ |title=Fulbourn Village Guide|year=2017|accessdate=16 April 2017}}</ref>
Goodman married the noted English poet Geoffrey Hill in 1987. The couple has one daughter, Alberta.<ref name="Mans">Mansfield (22 August 2005)</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *Dyer, Richard, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121102235933/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7675285.html "'Klinghoffer' librettist revels in power of words"], ''Boston Globe'', 1 September 1991, (subscription access) *{{cite web |url = http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=25904 |title = Has Her Life Been the Proverbial 'Curate's Egg'? (The Scotsman [Edinburgh] - 22 August 2005) |first = Susan |last = Mansfield |publisher = andante Corp. |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20081123231755/http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=25904 |archivedate = 2008-11-23 |url-status =dead |accessdate = 2011-11-05 }} *White, Michael [https://web.archive.org/web/20110604061944/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/888995271.html?dids=888995271:888995271&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+30,+2005&author=Michael+White&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Controversy+gets+another+hearing%3B+Long+opposed,+an+opera+about+the+Achille+Lauro+hijacking+is+presented+in+Edinburgh.&pqatl=google "Controversy gets another hearing"], ''Los Angeles Times'', 30 August 2005, p. E2 *Trinity College, Cambridge, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110606090501/http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/10%26conid%3D193 Rev. Alice Goodman]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Alice}} Category:Living people Category:Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota Category:Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Anglican poets Category:Jewish American poets Category:American opera librettists Category:Women opera librettists Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Category:American emigrants to England Category:American librettists Category:American women poets Category:Women Anglican clergy Category:Boston University School of Theology alumni Category:Wives of knights Category:21st-century American women writers Category:1958 births Category:Church of England priests Category:21st-century Anglican priests Category:21st-century women Christian religious leaders