Karen Swenson

Karen Swenson (born July 29, 1936 New York City) is an American poet and journalist.

Life

She grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and studied at Barnard College and New York University.

Swenson has been Poet-in-Residence at Skidmore College, the University of Idaho, Denver University, Clark University, Scripps College and Barnard College. She taught at City College, New York.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, "Saturday Review", and "The New Yorker".

Awards

• 1993 National Poetry Series, for The Landlady in Bangkok
• Lannan Residency
• Yaddo Residencies

Reviews

For a poet, the value of travel has more to do with the self a writer brings to a place than any impression he or she takes from the landscape or the people there. Karen Swenson has traveled extensively over the past four decades, and in A Daughter's Latitude she reports not only on visits to countries like Malaysia and Thailand but also on her return trips to the provinces of childhood memory.

External links

• "Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow Karen Swenson, a Poet, Journalist and World Traveler, at Centenary Nov. 15-19"