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Anne Boyer

アン・ボイヤー

An Boyā

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1973 (Topeka, Kansas)
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Topeka, Kansas → Salina, Kansas → St Andrews, Scotland

Career

Occupations
poet, essayist, professor
Active Years
2006-2024
Affiliations
University of St Andrews, Kansas City Art Institute

Education

Kansas State University
English literature
Degree: BA
Period: -1996
Year of Graduation: 1996
Country: United States
Wichita State University
poetry
Degree: MFA
Period: -1997
Year of Graduation: 1997
Country: United States

Awards

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
2020
Work: The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care
Organization: Columbia University
Result: Winner
Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Nonfiction
2020
Organization: Windham-Campbell Prizes
Result: Winner
Whiting Award
2018
Category: Nonfiction, Poetry
Organization: Whiting Foundation
Result: Winner
Cy Twombly Award
2018
Category: Poetry
Organization: Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Result: Winner
Firecracker Award
2016
Work: Garments Against Women
Category: poetry
Organization: Community of Literary Magazines and Presses
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care

2019 nonfiction/essay/memoir

Explores her experience with breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, examining the intersection of social class and medical care.

cancermedicinevulnerabilitycapitalism
Translations
  • Icelandic, Spanish, Chinese, French, Hungarian, Persian, Swedish, etc.

Garments Against Women

2015 poetry

A sad, beautiful, passionate book that registers the political economy of life and literature.

sewinghappinesscapitalism
Translations
  • Icelandic, etc.

Bibliography

  • Anne Boyer's Good Apocalypse (2006)
  • Selected Dreams with a note on Phrenology (2007)
  • The Romance of Happy Workers (2008)
  • Art is War (2008)
  • The 2000s: A history of the future in advance of itself (2009)
  • My Common Heart (2011)
  • A Form of Sabotage (2013)
  • Garments Against Women (2015)
  • A Handbook of Disappointed Fate (2018)
  • Money City Sick as Fuck (2019)
  • The Undying (2019)

Translations by Author

  • Translations of Venezuelan poets Victor Valera Mora, Miguel James, Miyó Vestrini

Translations of Works

  • Her works translated into Icelandic, Spanish, Chinese, French, Hungarian, Persian, Swedish

Style & Themes

Literary Style
widening boundaries of poetry and memoirexperimentalpolitical critique
Recurring Motifs
disappointmentillnesslaborcapitalism

Health

  • breast cancer
    2016頃
    Diagnosis and treatment became subject of her work, examining lives and near-deaths of poets.

Legacy

Renowned Pulitzer Prize winner for her poetry and essays critiquing political economy, illness, and care in contemporary society.

In Popular Culture

  • Resigned as poetry editor of The New York Times Magazine in 2023 protesting coverage of Israel-Hamas war

Quotes

  • the Israeli state’s U.S.-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone
    Source: New York Times Magazine resignation letter (2023)

Trivia

  • Resigned from The New York Times Magazine poetry editor role in 2023 protesting coverage of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.