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Lucia Perillo

ルチア・ペリロ

Lucia Perillo

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1958-09-30 （Manhattan, New York）
Died
2016-10-16 （Olympia, Washington） age 58
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Grew up in Irvington, New York → Lived in Olympia, Washington (later life)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Author, Essayist
Active Years
1986-2016
Nominations
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry finalist (2010), PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize finalist (2013), National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in Poetry (2013), Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award finalist (2012)

Awards

Samuel French Morse Award
1989
Organization: Northeastern University Press
Result: 受賞
Norma Farber First Book Award
1990
Work: Dangerous Life
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: 受賞
PEN/Revson Award
1991
Organization: PEN American Center
Result: 受賞
Verna Emery Poetry Prize
1995
Organization: Purdue University Press
Result: 受賞
Kate Tufts Discovery Award
1997
Organization: Kate Tufts Foundation
Result: 受賞
Balcones Prize
1997
Work: The Body Mutinies
Organization: Austin Community College
Result: 受賞
Chad Walsh Poetry Prize
1998
Organization: The Beloit Poetry Journal
Result: 受賞
Pushcart Prize
1998
Work: Bad Boy Number Seventeen
Organization: Pushcart Press
Result: 受賞
MacArthur Fellows Program
2000
Organization: MacArthur Foundation
Result: 受賞（いわゆる“genius grant”）
Pushcart Prize
2003
Work: Shrike Tree
Organization: Pushcart Press
Result: 受賞
Pushcart Prize
2005
Work: In the Confessional Mode
Organization: Pushcart Press
Result: 受賞
Washington State Book Award
2010
Work: Inseminating the Elephant
Organization: Washington State Book Awards
Result: 受賞
Bobbitt Prize, Library of Congress
2010
Work: Inseminating the Elephant
Organization: Library of Congress
Result: 受賞
WA State Governor's Arts Medal
2012
Organization: State of Washington
Result: 受賞
Shelley Memorial Award
2013
Organization: Poetry Society / Awarding body
Result: 受賞
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award
2013
Work: On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths
Organization: Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Dangerous Life

1989 Poetry collection

Her first poetry collection, featuring free-verse personal poems that introduce motifs developed in later books.

Personal reflectionPhysicalityEveryday observation

The Body Mutinies

1996 Poetry collection

A collection focusing on the body and its rebellions, exploring the relationship between self and physical experience.

BodyResistanceTransformation

Inseminating the Elephant

2009 Poetry collection

A mature collection balancing humor with meditations on illness, mortality, and life; it received regional and national recognition.

MortalityIllnessHumor and pathos

On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths

2012 Poetry collection

Centered on themes of illness and possible deaths, this collection combines sharp observation with dark humor; it was shortlisted for several awards.

IllnessPossible deathsObservation

Time Will Clean the Carcass Bones

2016 Poetry (selected and new poems)

Her final poetry volume, a mix of collected and new poems that reflect on life and death.

ReminiscenceLife and deathTime

I've Heard the Vultures Singing

2007 Non-fiction (essays)

A collection of essays confronting illness and the body, particularly multiple sclerosis, written with candid personal voice.

IllnessBodyFirst-person narrative

Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain

2012 Short fiction collection

A short-story collection using scientific metaphors and fragments of daily life to explore human relationships and existential concerns.

ExistenceRelationshipsScientific metaphor

Bibliography

  • Dangerous Life (1989)
  • The Body Mutinies (1996)
  • The Oldest Map with the Name America: New and Selected Poems (1999)
  • Luck Is Luck: Poems (2005)
  • Inseminating the Elephant (2009)
  • On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths (2012)
  • Time Will Clean the Carcass Bones (2016)
  • I've Heard the Vultures Singing (2007)
  • Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain (2012)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Free-verse, lyric and personal reflectionWry humor and ironic narrative voice
Recurring Motifs
Illness and the bodyLife and deathEveryday observationJuxtaposition of humor and pathos

Health

  • Multiple sclerosis
    1990s–2016
    A long-term illness that became a central subject of her poetry and essays, shaping recurring themes of corporeality and mortality.

Legacy

Lucia Perillo was celebrated for candid, often humorous treatments of illness, death, and life. A MacArthur Fellow and multiple award-winner and finalist, she is regarded as an important voice of personal testimony in contemporary American poetry.

Trivia

  • Received a MacArthur Fellowship (the so-called "genius grant") in 2000.
  • Wrote extensively about living with multiple sclerosis in poems and essays.
  • Died in Olympia, Washington in 2016.