Cole Swensen

Cole Swensen is an American poet, translator and publisher. She is the author of thirteen collections of poetry, and her most recent books include Gravesend, Stele, and Greensward. Her translation of Now, Now, Louison was a French-American Foundation Translation Prize finalist. She was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2004, and the recipient of a PEN USA Award for her translation of Jean Frémon’s The Island of the Dead. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006. In 2009, Swensen coedited American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry. A book of her essays on poetry, Noise That Stays Noise, was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2011.

Related articles and media:
Greatest Women in Translation, Cole Swensen interviewed for Carol’s Adventures in Translation.

‘With impressive versatility, Cole Swensen negotiates the multiplicity of voices, while also maintaining the distinctive spoken quality Frémon achieves in his text. Despite the many tonal shifts, we always know we are rooted in the errant, challenging, deeply compelling inner monologue of Louise Bourgeois. But, arguably Swensen’s greatest accomplishments in Now, Now, Louison stem from her complex engagement with the relationship between fidelity and translation.’
— Asymptote