Mary Maxwell

Poet, Translator

Author's Bio

Mary Maxwell has published six volumes of poems: An Imaginary Hellas, Emporia, Cultural Tourism, Nine Over Sixes, Oral Lake and Word Suites.  She is the author of an art monograph, Serena Rothstein: Discourse in Paint, as well as the omnibus collections, The Longnook Overlook (Volumes One and Two).  She has completed a volume of nonfiction about the genesis and meaning of the movie, The Night of the Hunter, whose origins can be traced back to her childhood hometown of Clarksburg, West Virginia; an excerpt recently appeared in Raritan. Her translations of Provençal, Latin and Classical Greek poetry have appeared in The American Voice, Literary Imagination, Pequod, Vanitas, The Washington Post Book World and the anthology, Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry. She is a contributor to Oxford University Press's forthcoming Sulpicia: A Woman's Voice from Ancient Rome as well as to The Routledge Companion to Ezra Pound.

As a critic and independent scholar she has published in literary periodicals such as Agni, Arion, Boston Review, Partisan Review, PN Review, Revel, Salmagundi, Threepenny Review and Yale Review. A collection of her essays and talks on prosody and translation is forthcoming from LongNookBooks. 

Publications & Prizes

Poetry

Journals: ,
Literary Imagination
,
New Republic
,
Paris Review
,
Pequod
,
Provincetown Arts
, ,
Slate
, ,
The Nation
,
Western Humanities Review
,
Yale Review

Translation

Anthologies:
Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry, poems by Sulpicia, translated from the Latin (Garland Publishing, 1994)
;
Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry, poems by Sulpicia, translated from the Latin (Garland Publishing, 1994)
Journals:
Literary Imagination, a poem by Sappho, translated from the Greek
;
Vanitas Magazine, a poem by Pindar, translated from the Greek
Prizes won: 

Discovery/The Nation Prize; Camargo Foundation Fellowship; Visting Artist, American Academy in Rome

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Born in: 
Clarksburg, WV
West Virginia
Raised in: 
Clarksburg, WV
West Virginia
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Last update: Sep 14, 2025