{{short description|American poet (1927–2010)}}
'''Maxine Cassin''' (1927–2010)<ref>[https://archive.today/20120805054033/http://www.lib.lsu.edu/cgi-bin/dbman/authors/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&Date_Span=&ID=&Section=&Last_Name=Cassin&First_Name=Maxine&Bio=&Works=&keyword=&mh=10&sb=Select+Field+-%3E&so=ascend&view_records=View+Records]</ref> was a poet, editor, and publisher who influenced and published many New Orleans poets, most notably Everette Maddox, founder of the Maple Leaf Bar poetry reading series.
==Biography== Maxine Cassin was born in New Orleans in 1927<ref>[https://archive.today/20120805054033/http://www.lib.lsu.edu/cgi-bin/dbman/authors/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&Date_Span=&ID=&Section=&Last_Name=Cassin&First_Name=Maxine&Bio=&Works=&keyword=&mh=10&sb=Select+Field+-%3E&so=ascend&view_records=View+Records]</ref> of Armenian and Jewish descent.<ref> {{Cite news|url=http://www.pw.org/content/maxine_cassin_1|title=Maxine Cassin|work=Poets & Writers|access-date=2018-02-18|language=en}}</ref> She attended the all-women's Newcomb College (now part of Tulane University), earning an M.A. in philosophy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.spillwayreview.com/biomc.html |title=Bio - Maxine Cassin |publisher=Spillway Review |accessdate=2010-03-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216182654/http://www.spillwayreview.com/biomc.html |archivedate=February 16, 2010 }}</ref> In 1954, she married Joe Cassin, a survivor of the Bataan Death March during World War II; they have one son.
In the 1950s, Cassin and Richard Ashman edited the ''New Orleans Poetry Journal''. Contributors included William Stafford, Donald Hall, Judson Jerome, Sylvia Plath,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lament : a villanelle (Article, 1955) |publisher=[WorldCat.org] |date= |oclc=38057744 }}</ref> and Vassar Miller. The journals' press published Miller's ''Adam's Footprint'' (1956)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Adam's footprint (Book, 1956) |publisher=[WorldCat.org] |date= |oclc=4881509 }}</ref> and ''Struggling to Swim on Concrete'' (1984), as well as collections by Maddox, Raeburn Miller, Martha McFerren, Tom Wright, Harold Witt, Felix Stefanile, Rosewell Graves Lowrey, Charles L. Black, Ralph Adamo, Charles DeGravelles (a later co-editor of the press),<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://beta.lpb.org/index.php/publicsquare/lps_bio/deacon_charles_n._de_gravelles |title=LPB Web |publisher=Beta.lpb.org |date=1995-06-10 |accessdate=2010-03-18 |archive-date=2011-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727042855/http://beta.lpb.org/index.php/publicsquare/lps_bio/deacon_charles_n._de_gravelles |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Paul Petrie.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Favorite |first=Malaika |url=http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=%22new+orleans+poetry+journal+press%22&qt=results_page |title=Results for '"new orleans poetry journal press"' |publisher=Worldcat.org |date= |accessdate=2010-03-18}}</ref> She also published Malaika Favorite's poetry and art, as well as Clarence John Laughlin's photographs. Cassin, along with Maddox and Yorke Corbin, also edited the first ''Maple Leaf Rag'' anthology.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina forced the Cassins to relocate from their home in Uptown New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Despite failing health and artistic isolation, Cassin communicated with other poets, artists, and friends through the World Wide Web, usually through messages typed in all-capital letters. She continued to publish in major journals as late as 2006; ''Callaloo'''s post-Katrina issue featured "Three Love Poems by a Native," which Cassin also read during an October 26, 1995 interview with WWNO-FM's Fred Kasten.
Maxine Cassin died in Baton Rouge within days of Joe's death<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://obits.nola.com/obituaries/nola/obituary.aspx?n=joseph-cassin&pid=140517174 |title=Joseph Cassin Death Notice: Joseph Cassin's Obituary by ''The Times-Picayune'' |publisher=Obits.nola.com |date= |accessdate=2010-03-18}}</ref> in March, 2010.
==Bibliography==
===Poetry collections=== * ''Against The Clock: New and Neglected Poems''. New Orleans: Portals Press, 2003. * ''The Other Side of Sleep''. New Orleans: Portals Press, 1995. * ''Turnip's Blood.'' Baton Rouge: Sisters Grim Press, 1985. * ''A Touch of Recognition''. Denver: A. Swallow Press 1962.<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=maxine+cassin Worldcat]</ref>
===Anthologies=== * ''Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum: Critical and Creative Responses to Everette Maddox'', eds. Julie Kane and Grace Bauer. (Contains "Happy Hour," "The Old Odor," and "The Medium," pp. 159–161, as well as multiple references to Cassin throughout.)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum: Critical and Creative Responses to Everette Maddox (9781883275167): Grace Bauer, Julie Kane: Books |isbn=1883275164 |last1=Bauer |first1=Grace |last2=Kane |first2=Julie |year=2006 }}</ref> * ''Uncommonplace: An Anthology of Contemporary Louisiana Poets''. LSU Press, 1988. * ''The Louisiana Literature Prize for Poetry, 1987-1996: Artists and Poets in Dialogue.'' Southeastern Louisiana University, 1996. * ''9 x 3'' (chapbook with Robert Lawrence Beum and Felix Stefanile). Redondo Beach, CA: Hearse Press, ca. 1962.
===Editor=== * ''New Orleans Poetry Journal'', Jan. 1955-Dec. 1958. '''New Orleans Poetry Journal Press''' * "Wait for the Green Fire", Dale Matthews, 2010 * ''Rooms of Grace: New and Selected Poems'', Paul Petrie, 2005. * ''Illuminated Manuscript : Poems and Prints'', Malaika Favorite, 1991. * ''Hanoi Rose : A Poem Sequence'', Ralph Adamo, 1989. * ''The Well-Governed Son'', Charles DeGravelles, 1987. * ''Millenary'', Raeburn Miller, 1986. * ''Struggling to Swim on Concrete'', Vassar Miller, 1984. * ''Delusions of a Popular Mind'', Martha McFerren, 1983. * ''The Waking Passenger'', Charles L. Black, 1983. * ''The Everette Maddox Song Book'', Everette Maddox, 1982. * ''Maple Leaf Rag''. New Orleans: Poetry Journal Press, 1980.
===Articles, essays, etc.=== * "An Appreciation of Ralph Adamo." ''Louisiana Literature: A Review of Literature and Humanities'' 2003 Fall-Winter; 20 (2): 111-14. * "From Fred's Folder." ''Sagetrieb: A Journal Devoted to Poets in the Imagist/Objectivist Tradition'' 1997 Spring-Fall; 16 (1-2): 208-10. * "Confessions of a Small Press Publisher." ''Louisiana Literature: A Review of Literature and Humanities'' 1996 Spring; 13 (1): 77-79. * "Impartial Remarks." ''Yale Law Journal'', Jul., 1986, vol. 95, no. 8, p. 1589
===Poems in journals=== * ''To a Minor Poet''<ref>Prairie schooner, Volumes 29-30 (1955)</ref> * Beloit Poetry Journal,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bpj.org/PDF/V10N2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060825180746/http://www.bpj.org/PDF/V10N2.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 25, 2006 |title=The Beloit Poetry Journal |date= |access-date=2010-03-18}}</ref> "Three Poems: To a Former Dinosaur, Dismemberment at the Beach, Chicken" 10:2 (Winter 1959-60), 14-15. * ''Callaloo'',<ref>Callaloo, 29, no. 4 (2006): 1033-1034</ref> "Three Love Poems by a Native." 29:4 (2006): 1033-1034.
===Audio=== * The Writer's Almanac.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/author.php?auth_id=2298 |title=The Writer's Almanac: Maxine Cassin |publisher=Writersalmanac.publicradio.org |date= |accessdate=2010-03-18}}</ref> "My Captain." 3 February 2004 and 3 February 2008. * Audio Archives,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wwno.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104 |title=Maxine Cassin |publisher=Wwno.org |date=1995-10-26 |accessdate=2010-03-18 |archive-date=2011-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716114919/http://www.wwno.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104 |url-status=dead }}</ref> WWNO, 89.9 FM. "Maxine Cassin." 26 October 1995.
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassin, Maxine}} Category:1927 births Category:2010 deaths Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American poets Category:20th-century American publishers (people) Category:20th-century American women poets Category:21st-century American Jews Category:21st-century American women writers Category:American editors Category:American people of Armenian-Jewish descent Category:American writers of Armenian descent Category:Jewish American poets Category:Tulane University alumni