Kizer, Carolyn (1924-2014), an American poet, won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her collection Yin (1984). Many of Kizer’s poems deal with feminist themes and reflect her concern for human rights. She also wrote about relationships between human beings and nature, and about love affairs, art, and family. Her style was influenced by traditional Chinese poetry.
Kizer’s first important collection, The Ungrateful Garden (1961), contains several of her nature poems. Knock Upon Silence (1965) includes the long poem “Pro Femina,” one of her best-known works. “Pro Femina” consists of three satirical poems dealing with liberated women, especially women writers, in the modern world. Midnight Was My Cry (1971) reflects Kizer’s interest in social justice. The collection covers such topics as civil rights sit-ins of the 1960’s, the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and the Vietnam War. Kizer’s other collections include Mermaids in the Basement: Poems for Women (1984), The Nearness of You (1986), Harping On: Poems 1985-1995 (1996), and Cool, Calm & Collected: Poems 1960–2000 (2000).
Kizer worked as an editor and translated Asian poetry. Her critical writings were published in Proses: On Poems & Poets (1993) and Picking and Choosing: Essays on Prose (1995).
Carolyn Ashley Kizer was born on Dec. 10, 1924, in Spokane, Washington. She received a B.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1945. During the mid-1950’s, she studied with the noted American poet Theodore Roethke at the University of Washington. Kizer co-founded the journal Poetry Northwest in Seattle in 1959 and served as its editor until 1965. She was the first director of literary programs for the National Endowment for the Arts, holding the position from 1966 to 1970. Kizer taught or served as a poet-in-residence at several American universities. Kizer died on Oct. 9, 2014.
