Louise Glück
Early Life and Education
Louise Elisabeth Glück was born on April 22, 1943, in New York City. She was the second daughter of Daniel and Beatrice Glück, who were Hungarian Jewish immigrants. Her father was a businessman, and her mother was a homemaker. Glück grew up on Long Island and showed an early interest in reading and writing.
Glück attended Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University, but did not receive a degree from either institution. Despite this, she continued to pursue her passion for writing and began to gain recognition for her work in the late 1960s.
Career
Glück's first collection of poems, "Firstborn", was published in 1968. The collection was met with critical acclaim and established her as a significant new voice in American poetry. She followed this with several more collections, including "The House on Marshland" (1975), "Descending Figure" (1980), and "The Triumph of Achilles" (1985), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.
In addition to her work as a poet, Glück has also been a professor of English at various institutions, including Williams College and Yale University. She was also appointed as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2003 to 2004.
Glück's work is characterized by its emotional intensity and exploration of themes such as family, death, love, and the passage of time. Her poetry is often noted for its technical precision, stark imagery, and use of mythological and biblical references.
Awards and Recognition
Over the course of her career, Glück has received numerous awards and honors for her work. In addition to the National Book Critics Circle Award, she has also been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection "The Wild Iris" (1992), and the National Book Award for "Faithful and Virtuous Night" (2014).
In 2020, Glück was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first American woman to win the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993. The Swedish Academy cited her "unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal" as the reason for her selection.
Personal Life
Glück has been married twice. Her first marriage was to Charles Hertz, Jr., a photographer, in 1967. They divorced in 1972. In 1985, she married John Dranow, a writer and the co-founder of the Napa Valley Writers' Conference. They divorced in 1996.
Glück has one son, Noah, from her marriage to Dranow. She currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Legacy and Influence
Glück's work has had a significant impact on contemporary American poetry. Her exploration of personal and universal themes, combined with her technical skill and innovative use of form, has influenced a generation of poets. Her work is frequently studied in literature and creative writing courses across the United States and around the world.