Kathleen (Drucker) Spivack

Kathleen Spivack's forthcoming book, the novel "Unspeakable Things," is coming from Knopf in early 2016. It just received a starred review from Booklist: "a macabre fairy tale of monstrous fascinations, horrific exploitations, and desperate strategies of survival.... Amid gothic eroticism and chamber-of-horrors surrealism, Spivack considers the epic betrayal of the European dream that art, culture, and rationality can triumph over hate, malevolence, and terror."

Kathleen Spivack's previous book, the memoir "With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and Others" was published by the University Press of New England in 2012. Kathleen came to Boston in 1959 to study with Robert Lowell in that ”famous class.” He introduced her to the poets of his time who took her under their wing. The memoir looks at personal friendships and work. It gives unique insights into the poets and the poetry. To see what people have been saying about With Robert Lowell and His Circle, go here: http://www.kathleenspivack.com/p/reviews.html.

Kathleen is available for readings and presentations. For further information and to order the book, please visit
http://www.upne.com.

Kathleen Spivack's chapbook, “A History of Yearning,” won the Sows Ear International Poetry Chapbook Prize in 2010, and she recently received the Allen Ginsberg, Erika Mumford, and Paumanok awards for her poetry. Her book won the New England Book Festival and London Book Festival Prizes. Earlier books are Moments of Past Happiness, Earthwinds/Grolier; The Break-Up Variations; The Beds We Lie In (Scarecrow 1986), nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; The Honeymoon: a Collection of Short Stories (Graywolf 1986); Swimmer in the Spreading Dawn (Applewood 1981); The Jane Poems (Doubleday 1973); Flying Inland (Doubleday 1971). Published in over 400 magazines and anthologies, Kathleen’s work has been translated into French.

Kathleen Spivack has taught in France full or half time for the past twenty-one years (1990-present). A Fulbright Professor in Creative Writing in France (1993-94), Ms. Spivack has been Visiting Professor at the University of Paris VII-VIII, the University of Tours, the University of Versailles, and the Ecole Superieure (Polytechnique). She also teaches in the U.S. and has been Visiting Writer at American Universities.

She has held grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; Massachusetts Artists Foundation; Bunting Institute; Howard Foundation; Massachusetts Council for the Arts and Humanities; is a Discovery winner and has been at Yaddo, MacDowell, Ragdale, Karolyi, and the American Academy in Rome. She has won international awards for her essays, Best Travel Writing: Solas awards. & Grand Prix.

In Boston and Paris she directs the Advanced Writing Workshop, an intensive training program for professional writers. She has read her work widely in both the United States and Europe. Ms. Spivack has been Writer-in-Residence throughout the U.S. She gives theater performances and master classes. She has taught at conferences in Paris, Aspen, Santa Fe, Burgundy, Skidmore, and on the high seas, (Holland American Line).

For a list of recent periodical and anthology publications, see here: http://www.kathleenspivack.com/p/recent-periodical-publications.html.