Naomi Lazard

Naomi Lazard (born Naomi Katz in Philadelphia, March 17, 1928, died December 22, 2021) was an American poet, children's literature author, and playwright.[1] She was the winner of two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a former president of the Poetry Society of America. Her translations of Faiz Ahmed Faiz have been widely acclaimed.[2]

Naomi Lazard
Born(1928-03-17)March 17, 1928
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedDecember 22, 2021(2021-12-22) (aged 93)
Englewood, New Jersey
Occupation

Biography

She has published three volumes of poetry: Cry of the Peacocks (Harcourt, Brace & World; 1967), The Moonlit Upper Deckerina (Sheep Meadow Press, 1977), and Ordinances (Ardis, 1984). The poems in Ordinances are notable for their "dark Orwellian tone" - describing life lived under a monstrous, faceless bureaucracy.[1]

She also brought out The True Subject: Selected Poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a volume of translations from the work of Pakistanian poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.[3][4] She has also translated the works of Romanian poet Nina Cassian.

She is also the author of the children’s book What Amanda Saw (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky). She also wrote the screenplay The White Raven, and the play, The Elephant and the Dove.

In 1992, Lazard co-founded the Hamptons International Film Festival.[5]

Despite her prominence as a poet, Lazard is considered a "poet's poet" and not very well known in broader circles.[6] Her poems have been anthologized in Joy Katz and Kevin Prufer's Dark Horses: Poets on Overlooked Poems (2007) and in Czeslaw Milosz's anthology, The Book of Luminous Things (1996). Her poem, To Answer Your Query, has been read by Garrison Keillor on National Public Radio.[7]

Bibliography
  • Cry of the Peacocks (1967)[1]
  • The Moonlit Upper Deckerina (1977)[8]
  • What Amanda Saw (1981) (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky)[9]
  • Ordinances (1984)[1]

References
  1. Segal, Mark (3 February 2022). "Naomi Lazard, Poet and Translator". The East Hampton Star. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  2. Ali, Agha Shahid (1990). "The True Subject: The Poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz". Grand Street. 9 (2): 129–138. doi:10.2307/25007348. JSTOR 25007348. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  3. Jabbar, Abdul (1991). "NAOMI LAZARD'S "The True Subject: Selected Poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz"". Journal of South Asian Literature. 26 (1/2): 156–170. JSTOR 40873227.
  4. Dingwaney, Anuradha; Maier, Carol (1996-01-15). Between Languages and Cultures: Translation and Cross-Cultural Texts. University of Pittsburgh Pre. ISBN 9780822974680.
  5. "How the Hamptons International Film Festival Was Founded". danspapers.com. 4 October 2012. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  6. "Literary biography: Naomi Lazard". IIT Kanpur. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  7. "In Answer to Your Query". The Writer's Almanac. 22 July 2003. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  8. Lazard, Naomi (1977). The Moonlit Upper Deckerina. Sheep Meadow Press. ISBN 0818015403.
  9. What Amanda saw. Greenwillow Books. 1981. OL 4100104M. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
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