Anne Blonstein
Encyclopedia
Anne Blonstein was a British poet
and translator
, long-resident in Basel, Switzerland, where she worked as a freelance translator and editor.
She was the author of six full-length collections, the blue pearl, worked on screen, memory's morning, the butterflies and the burnings, correspondence with nobody, and to be continued. She was also known for her poetic sequences that work with notarikon
— originally a rabbinic and kabbalistic method used to interpret the Hebrew Scriptures. She redeployed and elaborated it as a contemporary poetic procedure, engaging with diverse languages and texts, both ancient and modern.
Blonstein also collaborated on projects with other artists, including the ceramist Pat King, and the Swiss composers Mela Meierhans and Margrit Schenker]. Her works appeared in Denver Quarterly, Descant, Dusie
, How2, Indiana Review, Notre Dame Review, and other publications.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, long-resident in Basel, Switzerland, where she worked as a freelance translator and editor.
She was the author of six full-length collections, the blue pearl, worked on screen, memory's morning, the butterflies and the burnings, correspondence with nobody, and to be continued. She was also known for her poetic sequences that work with notarikon
Notarikon
Notarikon is a method of deriving a word, akin to the creation of an acronym, by using each of its initial or final letters to stand for another word, forming a sentence or idea out of the words. Another variation entails using the first and last letters, or the two middle letters of a word,...
— originally a rabbinic and kabbalistic method used to interpret the Hebrew Scriptures. She redeployed and elaborated it as a contemporary poetic procedure, engaging with diverse languages and texts, both ancient and modern.
Early life
The greatgranddaughter of Jewish immigrants to Britain at the turn of the 20th century, Anne Blonstein was born and raised in the Home Counties — first Hertfordshire, then moving with her family to Surrey when she was 11. Before leaving Britain in 1983, she spent six years in Cambridge, where she took a degree in Natural Sciences followed by a PhD in genetics and plant breeding.Career
Blonstein lived in Basel, Switzerland, where she earned a living as a freelance translator and editor."[Blonstein's] terse, unusual images are the outcome of an English language that, mated to the other idioms she lives with — German, French, and Hebrew — shapes the transnational world of a language nomad. … In her most recent work, Hebrew … has become the place to which she ties her English and the other languages she uses in her life through graphic/visual and semantic associations. … [F]or Blonstein languages, with their varieties and differences, have become the endangered species of our globalized world." -- Marina Camboni, Contemporary Women's Writing, Oxford University Press
Blonstein also collaborated on projects with other artists, including the ceramist Pat King, and the Swiss composers Mela Meierhans and Margrit Schenker]. Her works appeared in Denver Quarterly, Descant, Dusie
Dusie
Dusie began in 2005 by publishing an experimental poetics journal online. In 2006, Dusie began publishing full length works in paperback format. Dusie's backlist of full-length collections of poetry includes books by Joe Amato, Anne Blonstein, Kirsty Bowen, Nicole Mauro, Logan Ryan Smith, and...
, How2, Indiana Review, Notre Dame Review, and other publications.
Poetry Links
- Feature of poems, reviews and essays in Word for/Word, vol. 16, 2010
- Poem in Cambridge Literary Review 1/3, 2010
- Salt Magazine: Anne Blonstein - Five poems with a Note by Charles Lock
- Copenhagen Review - poems