May Swenson

Passions

Vocation

American lesbian poet and playwright considered one of the most important and original poets of the 20th century. She grew up as the eldest of 10 children in a Mormon household where Swedish was spoken regularly and English was a second language. Some of her poems describe intense love between women, written at a time when lesbian eroticism was rare in poetry. Although she did not go out of her way to make known her lesbian sexual identity, she also did not hide it. Much of her later poetry works were devoted to children (e.g. the collection Iconographs, 1970). She also translated the work of contemporary Swedish poets, including the selected poems of Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer. May Swenson died on 28 December 1989 aged 76 at Bethany Beach, Delaware. Link to Wikipedia biography