Louise Glück facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Louise Glück
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Glück c. 1977
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| Born | Louise Elisabeth Glück April 22, 1943 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | October 13, 2023 (aged 80) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Education | |
| Period | 1968–2023 |
| Notable works | The Triumph of Achilles (1985) The Wild Iris (1992) |
| Notable awards |
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| Spouse |
Charles Hertz Jr.
(m. 1967, divorced)John Dranow
(m. 1977; div. 1996) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Abigail Savage (niece) |
Louise Elisabeth Glück (pronounced GLIK; April 22, 1943 – October 13, 2023) was an American poet and essay writer. She was famous for her unique way of writing poetry. In 2020, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The judges praised her "unmistakable poetic voice" that made everyday life feel special.
Glück also received many other important awards. These include the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. From 2003 to 2004, she was the official Poet Laureate of the United States. This means she was recognized as a top poet in the country.
Louise Glück was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island. She faced a challenging illness called anorexia nervosa when she was a teenager. She later overcame this illness. She studied at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. Even though she didn't get a degree, she learned a lot about poetry. Besides writing, she also taught poetry at several universities.
Her poems are often about her own life and feelings. They are known for being very emotional. She often used ideas from mythology or nature to explore personal experiences. Her poems talked about feelings like sadness and loneliness. They also explored themes of trauma and desire.
Glück taught poetry at Yale University and Stanford University. She lived in different places like Cambridge, Massachusetts, Montpelier, Vermont, and Berkeley, California.
About Louise Glück's Life
Early Years and Education
Louise Glück was born in New York City on April 22, 1943. She was the older of two daughters. Her father, Daniel Glück, was a businessman. Her mother, Beatrice Glück, stayed at home.
Louise's family had roots in Europe. Her mother was of Russian Jewish background. Her father's parents were Hungarian Jews who came to the United States in 1900. They owned a grocery store in New York. Louise's father wanted to be a writer. But he went into business instead. He helped invent the X-Acto knife. Louise's mother went to Wellesley College.
When Louise was a child, her parents taught her about Greek mythology. They also shared classic stories like the life of Joan of Arc. She started writing poetry when she was very young.
As a teenager, Louise developed anorexia nervosa. This was a big challenge for her. Because of this, she did not go to college full-time. Instead, she took poetry classes at Sarah Lawrence College. From 1963 to 1966, she attended poetry workshops at Columbia University. There, she learned from famous poets like Léonie Adams and Stanley Kunitz. She said these teachers helped her become the poet she was.
Her Writing Career
While taking workshops, Louise Glück began to publish her poems. Her first poems appeared in magazines like Mademoiselle and Poetry. After leaving Columbia, she worked as a secretary. In 1967, she married Charles Hertz Jr.
In 1968, Glück published her first book of poems, Firstborn. Critics noticed her strong voice. However, after this book, she found it hard to write for a while. She said teaching poetry at Goddard College in Vermont helped her overcome this "writer's block" in 1971. The poems she wrote then became her second book, The House on Marshland (1975). Many critics felt this book showed her true, unique voice.
In 1973, Louise had a son. Her first marriage ended. In 1977, she married John Dranow. He was also a writer. In 1980, a fire destroyed her home in Vermont. This sad event led her to write new poems. These poems were later put into her award-winning book, The Triumph of Achilles (1985). This book was praised for being "clearer, purer, and sharper" than her earlier work. One poem from this book, "Mock Orange," became very famous. It is often included in poetry collections.
In 1984, Glück started teaching at Williams College. The next year, her father passed away. This loss inspired her next book, Ararat (1990). This book was very emotional and sad. After that, she published The Wild Iris (1992). This book became one of her most popular. It features garden flowers talking to a gardener and a god about life. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. This award made her known as a leading American poet.
The 1990s brought her success but also personal challenges. Her marriage to John Dranow ended in 1996. She used these experiences in her writing. In 1994, she published essays called Proofs & Theories. Then came Meadowlands (1996), a book of poems about love and marriage ending. She also wrote Vita Nova (1999) and The Seven Ages (2001).
In 2004, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Glück published a small book called October. It was one long poem about trauma and suffering. That same year, she became a writer-in-residence at Yale University.
After joining Yale, she continued to publish poetry. Her books from this time include Averno (2006), A Village Life (2009), and Faithful and Virtuous Night (2014). In 2012, a collection of her poems from 50 years, Poems: 1962–2012, was released. Another book of her essays, American Originality, came out in 2017.
In October 2020, Louise Glück received the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was the sixteenth woman to win this award. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she received her prize at home. In her Nobel speech, she talked about how poets, readers, and the public connect through poetry.
In 2021, her book Winter Recipes from the Collective was published. She continued teaching at Yale and Stanford University until her death.
Personal Life and Passing
Louise Glück had an older sister who died before Louise was born. Her younger sister, Tereze (1945–2018), was also a writer. Louise's niece is the actress Abigail Savage.
Louise Glück was close friends with the novelist Kathryn Davis. They often shared their writing and asked for advice from each other.
Louise Glück passed away from cancer at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 13, 2023. She was 80 years old.
Her Poetic Work
Louise Glück's poems are studied by many people. Her writings, letters, and other materials are kept at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
How She Wrote Her Poems
Glück is known for writing lyric poems. These poems use precise language and often have a serious or dark mood. One poet described her as someone who used words carefully, as if they were precious. Her poems did not often use rhyme or alliteration (words starting with the same sound).
Main Ideas in Her Poems
While Glück wrote about many things, some ideas appear often in her work.
- Trauma and Healing: Many of her poems focus on difficult experiences. She wrote about death, loss, suffering, and broken relationships. But she also wrote about trying to heal and start fresh.
- Desire: Another common theme is desire. This could be the desire for love, or the desire to understand things better.
- Nature: Nature was also very important in her poems. Many of her poems are set in natural places. For example, in The Wild Iris, flowers in a garden talk and share their feelings.
Who Influenced Her
Glück said that psychoanalysis (a way of understanding the mind) influenced her work. She also mentioned her early learning in ancient legends and mythology. Her teachers, Léonie Adams and Stanley Kunitz, were also big influences. Other writers who may have influenced her include Robert Lowell, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Emily Dickinson.
Awards and Recognitions
Louise Glück received many awards for her writing. Here are some of the honors she earned for her entire body of work and for individual books.
Awards for Her Overall Work
- Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1967)
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1970)
- Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts (1975)
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1979)
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature (1981)
- Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts (1987)
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1988)
- Honorary Doctorate, Williams College (1993)
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Elected Member (1993)
- Vermont State Poet (1994–1998)
- Honorary Doctorate, Skidmore College (1995)
- Honorary Doctorate, Middlebury College (1996)
- American Academy of Arts and Letters, Elected Member (1996)
- Lannan Literary Award (1999)
- School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences 50th Anniversary Medal, MIT (2001)
- Bollingen Prize (2001)
- Poet Laureate of the United States (2003–2004)
- Wallace Stevens Award of the Academy of American Poets (2008)
- Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry (2010)
- American Academy of Achievement, Elected Member (2012)
- American Philosophical Society, Elected Member (2014)
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry (2015)
- National Humanities Medal (2015)
- Tranströmer Prize (2020)
- Nobel Prize in Literature (2020)
- Honorary Doctorate, Dartmouth College (2021)
Awards for Specific Books
- Melville Cane Award for The Triumph of Achilles (1985)
- National Book Critics Circle Award for The Triumph of Achilles (1985)
- Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry for Ararat (1992)
- William Carlos Williams Award for The Wild Iris (1993)
- Pulitzer Prize for The Wild Iris (1993)
- PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction for Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry (1995)
- Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union for Vita Nova (2000)
- Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union for Averno (2007)
- L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for Averno (2007)
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poems 1962–2012 (2012)
- National Book Award for Faithful and Virtuous Night (2014)
Several of her books were also finalists for major awards. The Wild Iris, Vita Nova, and Averno were finalists for the National Book Award. The Seven Ages was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A Village Life was a finalist for the Griffin International Poetry Prize.
Her poems are often found in important poetry collections, like the Norton Anthology of Poetry.
Special Roles and Teaching Positions
In 1999, Louise Glück was asked to be a special consultant for the Library of Congress. She helped plan events for the library's 200th anniversary. She was also elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1999 to 2005. From 2003 to 2010, she judged the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. This is the oldest annual writing contest in the United States.
Glück was also a visiting professor at many universities. These included Stanford University, Boston University, and the Iowa Writers Workshop.
See also
In Spanish: Louise Glück para niños
