Jean Valentine

{{Short description|American poet (1934–2020)}} {{for|the World War II bombe operator at Bletchley Park|Jean Valentine (bombe operator)}} __NOTOC__ {{Infobox writer  | name = Jean Valentine | image = Jean_Valentine.jpeg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date |1934|04|27}} | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2020|12|29|1934|4|27}} | death_place = New York City | resting_place = | occupation = Poet, Professor | language = | nationality = American | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = Radcliffe College {{small|(B.A.)}}<br>Harvard University {{small|(M.A.)}} | alma_mater = | period = 1965-2020 | genre = Poetry | subject = | movement = | notableworks = *''The River at Wolf'' (1992) *''Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems'' (2004) *''Little Boat'' (2007) *''Break the Glass'' (2010) *''Shirt in Heaven'' (2015) | spouse = {{marriage|James Chace|1957|1968|end=divorced}} | partner = | children = Sarah Chace<br>Rebecca Chace | relatives = | awards = * Bollingen Prize (2017) *Pulitzer Prize (Finalist, 2010) *National Book Award (2004) * Guggenheim Fellowship (1976) * Yale Younger Poets Prize (1965) | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | portaldisp = | module = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | office = Poet Laureate of New York | term_start = 2008 | term_end = 2010 | predecessor = Billy Collins | successor = Marie Howe }} }} '''Jean Valentine''' (April 27, 1934{{spnd}}December 29, 2020) was an American poet. Over a six-decade career, Valentine published 14 collections of poetry. She received the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry for ''Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003'',<ref name=nba2004/> and was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for ''Break the Glass''. In celebrating the later, the committee of judges noted, “This is a collection in which small details can accrue great power and a reader is never sure where any poem might lead.”<ref>Seelye, Katharine Q. “Jean Valentine, Minimalist Poet With Maximum Punch, Dies at 86.” The New York Times, January 7, 2021. Accessed July 16, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/arts/jean-valentine-dead.html.</ref>

Throughout her career, Valentine served on the Creative Writing faculty of New York University, Columbia University, and Sarah Lawrence College.<ref>“Jean Valentine.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed July 16, 2025. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jean-valentine.</ref> Among numerous awards and honors, she was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bollingen Prize, and the Yale Younger Poets Prize. Additionally, Valentine served as Poet Laureate of New York from 2008 to 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://poets.org/poet/jean-valentine|title=About Jean Valentine {{!}} Academy of American Poets|last=Poets|first=Academy of American|website=poets.org|access-date=2019-08-02}}</ref> Often celebrated for her minimalist poetics, fellow poet Seamus Heaney once described her verse as “rapturous, risky, shy of words but desperately true to them.”<ref>"Obituary Note: Jean Valentine." Issue 3901. ''Shelf Awareness''. Accessed July 16, 2025. https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3901#m51079.</ref>

==Biography== Valentine was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 27, 1934. Her father was a Navy man.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pshares.org/issues/winter-2008-09/about-jean-valentine|title=Ploughshares at Emerson College, About Jean Valentine, by Amy Newman, Issue 107, winter 2007–2008}}</ref> She received a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree from Radcliffe College of Harvard University, and lived most of her life in New York City, where she died on December 29, 2020.

Her most recent book, ''Shirt In Heaven'', was published in 2015. Before that, ''Break the Glass'', published in 2010, was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.<ref name=pulitzer>[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Poetry "Poetry"]. ''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-04-08.</ref>

Valentine's first book, ''Dream Barker'' (Yale University Press, 1965), was chosen in 1964 for the Yale Series of Younger Poets and won the competition the following year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://poets.org/poet/jean-valentine|title=poets.org, Jean Valentine}}</ref> She published poems widely in literary journals and magazines, including ''The New Yorker,''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/03/09/hawkins-stable|title=Hawkins Stable|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2 March 2009 |access-date=23 July 2017}}</ref> and ''Harper's Magazine,''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.harpers.org/subjects/JeanValentine|title=''Harper's Magazine'' Poem: ''Forces'' > by Jean Valentine|access-date=23 July 2017}}</ref> and ''The American Poetry Review.'' Valentine was one of five poets, including Charles Wright, Russell Edson, James Tate and Louise Glück, whose work Lee Upton considered critically in ''The Muse of Abandonment: Origin, Identity, Mastery in Five American Poets'' (Bucknell University Press, 1998).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://lccn.loc.gov/98012153|title=The muse of abandonment : origin, identity, mastery, in five American poets|year=1998 |publisher=Library of Congress Online Catalog|isbn=9780838753965 |access-date=23 July 2017}}</ref> She held residencies from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.macdowellcolony.org/artists-indexfellows.php|title=Index of Fellows on Portable MacDowell – The MacDowell Colony|website=www.macdowellcolony.org|access-date=23 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090526052307/http://www.macdowellcolony.org/artists-indexfellows.php|archive-date=26 May 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> Ucross, and the Lannan foundation,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lannan.org/lf/res/past/P120/|title=Lannan Foundation|first=Lannan|last=Foundation|website=www.lannan.org|access-date=23 July 2017|archive-date=26 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150726222455/http://www.lannan.org/lf/res/past/P120|url-status=dead}}</ref> among others.

She taught with the Graduate Writing Program at New York University, at Columbia University, at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, and at Sarah Lawrence College. She was a faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.jeanvalentine.com/pdfs/cv.pdf | date = April 2, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304234941/http://www.jeanvalentine.com/pdfs/cv.pdf | archive-date = March 4, 2016 | url-status = dead | title = Jean Valentine CV | website = www.jeanvalentine.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vermontcollege.edu/mfaw/faculty.asp|title=Vermont College of Fine Arts — Faculty|access-date=23 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607083000/http://www.vermontcollege.edu/mfaw/faculty.asp|archive-date=7 June 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?authorID=1566|title=Read By Author – Ploughshares|website=www.pshares.org|access-date=23 July 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306101818/https://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?authorID=1566|archive-date=6 March 2016}}</ref>

She was Distinguished Poet-in-Residence for Drew University's MFA in Poetry & Poetry in Translation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://patch.com/new-jersey/madison/a-celebration-of-jean-valentine-a-symposium-of-the-work-of-jean-valentine|title=Patch, A Celebration of Jean Valentine: A Symposium of the Work of Jean Valentine, 2014|date=29 May 2014 }}</ref>

She was married to the late American historian James Chace from 1957 to 1968, and they are survived by two daughters, Sarah and Rebecca.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pshares.org/issues/winter-2008-09/about-jean-valentine|title=Ploughshares at Emerson College, About Jean Valentine, by Amy Newman, Issue 107, winter 2007–2008}}</ref>

Valentine died in Manhattan on December 29, 2020.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Seelye|first=Katharine Q.|date=2021-01-07|title=Jean Valentine, Minimalist Poet With Maximum Punch, Dies at 86|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/arts/jean-valentine-dead.html|access-date=2021-01-08|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==Published works== ;Full-length poetry collections * ''Shirt in Heaven'' (2015, Copper Canyon Press) * ''Break the Glass'' (2010, Copper Canyon Press) * '' Little Boat'' (2007, Wesleyan University Press) * ''Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003'' (2004, Wesleyan University Press) —winner of the National Book Award<ref name=nba2004/> * ''The Cradle of the Real Life'' (2000, Wesleyan University Press) * ''Growing Darkness, Growing Light'' (1997, Carnegie Mellon University Press) * ''The Under Voice: Selected Poems'' (1995, Salmon Publishing) * ''The River at Wolf'' (1992, Alice James Books) * ''Night Lake'' (1992, Press of Appletree Alley: limited edition of 150, hand-bound, illustrated by Linda Plotkin.) * ''Home Deep Blue: New and Selected Poems'' (1989, Alice James Books) * ''The Messenger'' (1979, Farrar, Straus & Giroux) * ''Ordinary Things'' (1974, Farrar, Straus & Giroux) * ''Pilgrims'' (1969, Farrar, Straus & Giroux) * ''Dream Barker, and Other Poems'' (1965, Yale University Press)

;Anthology publications * ''Leaving New York: Writers Look Back'' (Hungry Mind Press, 1995)

;Anthologies edited * ''The Lighthouse Keeper: Essays on the Poetry of Eleanor Ross Taylor'' (Hobart & William Smith, 2001).

==Awards and honors== * 2004 National Book Award for Poetry (for ''Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003'')<ref name=nba2004> [https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2004 "National Book Awards – 2004"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-08. <br />(With acceptance speech by Valentine, essay by Dilruba Ahmed from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog, and other material.)</ref> * 1999 Shelley Memorial Award * 1991 Maurice English Poetry Award * 1988 Beatrice Hawley Award (for ''Home Deep Blue: New and Selected Poems'') * 1976 Guggenheim Fellowship * 1972 National Endowment for the Arts – Literature Fellowship in Poetry <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060415085501/http://www.nea.gov/pub/NEA_lit.pdf NEA Literature Fellowships – Creative Writing Fellows]</ref> * 1965 Yale Series of Younger Poets

==References== {{Reflist}}

===Bibliography=== * Publishers Weekly Review of ''Door in the Mountain'' by Reed Business Information (Accessed via the [http://www.spl.org Seattle 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. {{ProQuest|710384891}}

==External links== * [http://www.jeanvalentine.com/ Jean Valentine website] * [http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/buniverse/videos/view/?id=214 Video: Poetry Reading: Jean Valentine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609175039/http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/buniverse/videos/view/?id=214 |date=2008-06-09 }} * [http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/valentine.html Poetry Society of America: ''Crossroads'' > ''A Conversation with Jean Valentine'' > by Eve Grubin] * [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00369 Jean Valentine Papers] [http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509153246/http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles |date=2012-05-09 }} * [http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/95902 Audio: Jean Valentine Reading for WNYC Radio] * [http://www.aprweb.org/issues/jan05/valentine.html ''The American Poetry Review'' > Jan/Feb 2005 Vol. 34/No. 1 > Jean Valentine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704121147/http://www.aprweb.org/issues/jan05/valentine.html |date=2008-07-04 }} * [http://catalog.loc.gov/ Library of Congress Online Catalog] * [http://www.jeanvalentine.com/bio06.html Author Website > Jean Valentine: Books/Bio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060530072340/http://www.jeanvalentine.com/bio06.html |date=2006-05-30 }} * [http://www.jeanvalentine.com/pdfs/cv.pdf Author Website > Jean Valentine C.V.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304234941/http://www.jeanvalentine.com/pdfs/cv.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }} * [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E3D8143EF93BA15752C1A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink ''The New York Times'' > ''A Poet in Yonkers'' > by Hershenson, Roberta > Nov. 28, 2004, section 14WC, p. 13] * [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/760 Academy of American Poets > Jean Valentine] * [http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/aww_04/aww_04_01228.html ''Novel Guide'']

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valentine, Jean}} Category:1934 births Category:2020 deaths Category:Columbia University faculty Category:National Book Award winners Category:National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Category:Poets from New York (state) Category:Poets laureate of New York (state) Category:Radcliffe College alumni Category:Sarah Lawrence College faculty Category:The New Yorker people Category:Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty Category:Poets from Chicago Category:Yale Younger Poets winners Category:20th-century American poets Category:21st-century American poets Category:American women academics Category:20th-century American women poets Category:21st-century American women poets