New & Selected Things Taking Place

May Swenson
Born	Anna Thilda May Swenson Template:Birth date
Died	December 4, 1989(1989-12-04) (aged 76)
Occupation(s)	Poet, playwright
Known for	Innovative poetry, iconograph technique

Anna Thilda May "May" Swenson (May 28, 1913 – December 4, 1989) was a distinguished American poet and playwright. Literary critic Harold Bloom recognized her as one of the most significant and innovative poets of the twentieth century.

The eldest child of Margaret and Dan Arthur Swenson, she grew up in a Mormon family where Swedish was predominantly spoken, with English as her secondary language. Although her conservative relatives struggled to accept her lesbian orientation, their familial bond remained strong. A considerable portion of her later writings centered on children, especially highlighted in the 1970 publication Iconographs. Additionally, she translated works by modern Swedish poets, including selected pieces by Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer.

Personal life

Swenson earned her bachelor's degree from Utah State University in 1934. Throughout her career, she held poet-in-residence positions teaching poetry at several institutions such as Bryn Mawr College, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of California, Riverside, Purdue University, and Utah State University. Between 1959 and 1966, she served as a manuscript evaluator at New Directions Publishing before resigning to dedicate herself entirely to writing. From 1980 until her passing in 1989, she acted as a chancellor for the Academy of American Poets. For the final two decades of her life, she lived in Sea Cliff, New York, and her grave in Logan City Cemetery features a granite bench engraved with her poetry.

In 1936, she worked as both editor and ghostwriter for an individual known as "Plat," whom she referred to as her "boyfriend." She expressed a wish to have a son with him but chose not to enter into marriage.

Her poetry was published in leading magazines including Antaeus, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Poetry. Of particular note is her poem Question, which was featured in Stephenie Meyer's novel The Host.

Awards and recognition

Throughout her lifetime, Swenson was honored with multiple accolades such as:

• American Introductions Prize (1955)
• William Rose Benet Prize from the Poetry Society of America (1959)
• Longview Foundation Award (1959)
• National Institute of Arts and Letters Award (1960)
• Brandeis University Creative Arts Award (1967)
• Lucy Martin Donnelly Award from Bryn Mawr College (1968)
• Shelley Poetry Award (1968)
• Guggenheim Fellowship (1959)
• Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship (1960)
• Ford Foundation Grant (1964)
• Bollingen Prize for Poetry (1981)
• MacArthur Fellowship (1987)

Style, imagery, and eroticism

Swenson was a pioneer of the "iconograph" technique, arranging poetic lines into visual shapes that correspond with the poem’s subject matter, exemplified in her 1970 collection Iconographs. Her poem "The Lowering," dedicated to Robert F. Kennedy, visually resembles a folded flag. She is recognized for intertwining natural imagery with spiritual and philosophical concepts; for instance, "Snow By Morning" compares snowfall to biblical manna. Her evocative imagery also permeates her erotic poetry, portraying the human body with rich sensual detail. Critic Jean Gould characterized her work as embodying both sensuality and sexuality.

Legacy

The primary repository for Swenson's papers and manuscripts is held by Washington University in St. Louis, which featured her work in a 2018 digital exhibit commemorating Pride Month. Meanwhile, Utah State University preserves two distinct collections of her writings and actively supports the "May Swenson Project," aimed at advancing her national recognition. Within USU’s English Department and Merrill-Cazier Library, dedicated spaces bear her name, and the institution is working toward establishing an endowed professorship to honor her enduring influence.

From 1996 until 2016, the May Swenson Poetry Award, administered by Utah State University Press, honored exceptional poetry collections written in English. This accolade was accessible to both emerging and established poets, reflecting Swenson’s significant contributions to twentieth-century American poetry. The award's panel of judges included prominent literary figures such as Mary Oliver, Maxine Kumin, John Hollander, Mark Doty, Harold Bloom, among other distinguished members of the American literary community.

A selection of digitized materials related to Swenson’s life and work can be explored here: May Swenson Addendum (Selected items)

Poetry

• Another Animal (Scribner, 1954)
• A Cage of Spines (Rinehart, 1958)
• To Mix with Time: New and Selected Poems (Scribner, 1963)
• Poems to Solve (for readers aged 14 and up) (Scribner, 1966)
• Half Sun Half Sleep (Scribner, 1967)
• Iconographs (Scribner, 1970)
• More Poems to Solve (Scribner, 1971)
• New & Selected Things Taking Place (Little, Brown, 1978)
• In Other Words (Knopf, 1987)
• Collected Poems (Library of America, 2013)

Prose

• Made With Words, edited by Gardner McFall (University of Michigan Press, 1998)

Translations

• Windows and Stones: Selected Poems of Tomas Tranströmer (1972)

See also

• Lesbian Poetry

Sources

Geffen, Alice, and Carole Berglie. “Bibliography of the Works of May Swenson.” In Body My House: May Swenson’s Work and Life, edited by Maure Lyn Smith et al., University Press of Colorado, 2006.

External links

• Weber Studies Spring 1991, Vol. 8.1
• Biography of Swenson, Poets.org
• The May Swenson Papers at Washington University in St. Louis
• May Swenson Society
• May Swenson resources within the Robert A. Wilson collection, University of Delaware Library Special Collections