Mark Statman

In New Orleans, February 2013.

Mark Statman (born 1958) is an American writer, translator, and poet. He is a former professor of Literary Studies at Eugene Lang College the New School for Liberal Arts in New York City, where he taught from 1985-2016.^[1]

Life

Statman was born in New York City and grew up in Queens and Long Island, NY. He studied at Columbia University in New York City.^[2] His book of translations, Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa (2012) (a member of the Generation of '27 and part of the surrealist movement in Spain along with Federico García Lorca),^[3] was a finalist for the National Translation Award, 2013. His book of translations of Federico García Lorca's Poet In New York,^[2] along with writer and translator Pablo Medina,^[2] was called by John Ashbery, "The definitive version of Lorca’s masterpiece, in language that is as alive and molten today as was the original."^[4] He also has taught creative writing to primary and secondary school students on local and national levels and written extensively on that work, included in his book Listener in the Snow: The Practice and Teaching of Poetry (2000).^[5]

From the mid 1980's to the mid 1990's, in addition to his work as a poet and teacher, Statman worked as a journalist and cultural critic, contributing to, among others, The Nation,^[6] ''In These Times, The Guardian, and The Village Voice. He was a Contributing Writer to Cover from 1989-1994.

About Statman’s poetry, David Shapiro writes, “It is hard to compare it to anything else,” William Corbett that his poetry is “America’s grand plain style descended from William Carlos Williams and James Schuyler,” and Joseph Lease, “Statman gives language as commitment, commitment as imagination, imagination as soul-making.”^[7] Anselm Berrigan notes his “spare, concise, searching poems” in which “the present is inexhaustibly on the move.” Joseph Stroud writes “Statman’s voice is a kind…that reminds me of the ancient Greek poets of the anthology or the concise voicings of Antonio Machado.” Aliki Barnstone calls him “a consummate poet-translator.”^[8]

With the publication of Poet in New York in 2008 and the appearance of Tourist at a Miracle in 2010, Statman, who had primarily read his poetry and talked about his work as a teacher of creative writing in the New York City and tri-state area and at academic and professional meetings, began appearing at national and international venues. He has continued to read with the subsequent publications of poetry books and poetry in translation. Among the more prominent sites are the Times Cheltenham Festival (UK),^[9] the Miami Book Fair International,^[10] US Poets in Mexico,^[11] and the Mundial Poético de Montevideo (UY).^[12]

Statman is married to painter and writer Katherine Koch,^[13] the daughter of poet Kenneth Koch.^[13] His son is New York anti-folk musician Cannonball Statman.^[14][15]

In September 2016, Statman retired from teaching to devote himself full-time to writing. He lives in Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico.

^[16]

Published works

• That Train Again (poems), Lavender Ink, 2015. ISBN 978-1935084815
• A Map of the Winds (poems), Lavender Ink, 2013. ISBN 978-1935084433
• Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa (translations, essay) University of New Orleans Press, 2012. ISBN 978-1608010882
• Tourist at a Miracle (poems), Hanging Loose Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1934909164
• Poet in New York, Federico García Lorca, (Pablo Medina and Mark Statman, translators), Grove Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0802143532
• Listener in the Snow: The Practice and Teaching of Poetry, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2000. ISBN 978-0915924592
• The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing (co-edited with Christian McEwen), Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2000. ISBN 978-0915924639
• The Red Skyline: Poems, Work and Lives Press, 1987. ASIN B001MK1KKQ

Awards and fellowships

• Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Fellow—Poetry) March 2007, March 2008, March 2009, December 2009/January 2010, March 2013.
• Poet-in-Residence (Honorary), Poetry Center of Chicago, 2002-2005.
• Jubilee Award, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, Columbia University, NY, 2000.
• Gold Key, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, Columbia University, NY, 1991.
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1986-87.
• National Writers Project Fellow, 1984-85.
• Joseph Murphy Fellow, 1976-80.

References

External links

• Mark Statman's Official Website
• Creative Interview 19 - Poetry & Religion, Part 1
• An Interview with Mark Statman | Regina Galasso - Academia.edu
• Brooklyn poet Mark Statman talks about F.G. Lorca, Kenneth Koch, the outlaws of music and Odyssey
• Mark Statman ~ interviewed by Derek Alger | Pif Magazine