Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan (May 27, 1932 – January 30, 2023) was an American poet of Jewish background. From 1991 to 1995 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. She was known for writing short poems that address topics like family life, domesticity, motherhood, the female experience, aging, death, loss and the fear of loss, as well as the fragility of life and relationships. Her final collection of poetry was Almost an Elegy, published in 2022.

Early life
Linda B Olenik was born in the Bronx, New York on May 27, 1932. Her father was a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, who became a surgeon. Her mother was a homemaker. An only child, she was raised in Armonk, New York. At age 12, she submitted her first poems to The New Yorker.

She received a bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College in 1954, a master's degree in library science from Simmons University in 1955, and a master's degree in English and American literature from Brandeis University in 1958.

Career in writing
Pastan published 15 books of poetry and a number of essays. Her awards include the Dylan Thomas Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award (Poetry Society of America), the Bess Hokin Prize (Poetry Magazine), the 1986 Maurice English Poetry Award (for A Fraction of Darkness), the Charity Randall Citation of the International Poetry Forum, and the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. She also received the Radcliffe College Distinguished Alumnae Award.

Two of her collections of poems were nominated for the National Book Award and one for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Personal life and death
She married Ira Pastan, a physician and researcher, in 1953. The couple had three children.

As of 2018, the Pastans lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Pastan died at her home in Chevy Chase on January 30, 2023, at the age of 90, from complications following cancer surgery.

Poetry collections