Rachel Zolf
Rachel Zolf (born 1968) is a Canadian-American poet and theorist. They are the author of five poetry collections: Janey's Arcadia[1](2014), which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, a Raymond Souster Memorial Award,[2] and a Vine Award;[3] Neighbour Procedure[4](2010); Human Resources[5](2007), which won the 2008 Trillium Book Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award; Masque [6](2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Trillium Book Award for Poetry; and Her absence, this wanderer [7](1999), the title poem of which was a finalist in the CBC Literary Competition. A selected poetry, Social Poesis: The Poetry of Rachel Zolf,[8] was published in 2019, and a work of poetics/theory, No One's Witness: A Monstrous Poetics,[9] in 2021. They received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts[10] in 2018.
Zolf's art video translation of three poems from Janey’s Arcadia [11] has shown at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Dunlop Art Gallery and other venues. Among their many collaborations, Zolf wrote the film The Light Club of Vizcaya: A Women’s Picture, directed by New York artist Josiah McElheny, which premiered at Art Basel Miami [12] and showed at the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Arts Club of Chicago and elsewhere. They also conducted the first collaborative MFA in Creative Writing ever, The Tolerance Project.[13]
Zolf teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. They were the founding poetry editor for The Walrus magazine and have edited several books of poetry. Their archives are held at York University in Toronto, Ontario,[14] and at Simon Fraser University's Special Collections in Burnaby, British Columbia.[15]
Brian Teare's review of Human Resources in the Winter 2008 Lambda Book Report situates Zolf as "one of an extremely talented generation of Canadian lesbian/queer writers whose innovative cross-genre work comes to us after that of radical foremothers Nicole Brossard, Gail Scott and Erín Moure."[16]
They are the child of author and broadcaster Larry Zolf.
Works[]
- 1999: Her Absence, this Wanderer. Ottawa: BuschekBooks.
- 2004: Masque. Toronto: The Mercury Press.
- 2007: Human Resources. Toronto: Coach House Books.
- 2008: Shoot & Weep. Vancouver: Nomados.
- 2010: Neighbour Procedure. Toronto: Coach House Books.
- 2014: Janey's Arcadia. Toronto: Coach House Books.
- 2019: Social Poesis: The Poetry of Rachel Zolf: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
- 2021: No One's Witness: A Monstrous Poetics: Duke University Press.
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Publisher's page for book Janey's Arcadia
- ^ Announcement of Zolf's shortlisting for the Raymond Souster Memorial Award
- ^ "Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature Shortlist Announced!". open-book.ca. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- ^ Publisher's page for Neighbour Procedure
- ^ Publisher's page for book Human Resources ISBN 1-55245-182-8
- ^ Small Press Distribution page for Masque
- ^ Small Press Distribution page for Her absence, this wanderer
- ^ Publisher's page for Social Poesis.
- ^ "Publisher's page for No One's Witness".
- ^ "Rachel Zolf". The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. 18 June 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- ^ Link to video translations at V tape, the Canadian distributor of video art
- ^ http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/josiah-mcelheny/ Link to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens listing for The Light Club of Vizcaya
- ^ http://thetoleranceproject.blogspot.com/ Link to The Tolerance Project
- ^ Inventory of the Rachel Zolf fonds at York University
- ^ "Special Collections and Rare Books: Manuscript collections | SFU Library". www.lib.sfu.ca. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- ^ Lambda Book Report (Winter 2008, pp.30-31)
External links[]
- Rachel Zolf’s website
- Rachel Zolf first set of archives are held at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario.
- Rachel Zolf's second set of archives are held at Simon Fraser University's Special Collections in Burnaby, British Columbia.
- Rachel Zolf’s PennSound page
- Rachel Zolf's EPC Page
- Writings in Jacket2 magazine
- Interview with Divya Victor in Jacket2 magazine
- Interview with Brian Teare in Jacket2 magazine
- Interview with Joel Bettridge in Jacket magazine
- An interview with Rachel Zolf in "Affect and Audience in the Digital Age"
- Chapter on Zolf's work appears in Translingual Poetics: Writing Personhood Under Settler Colonialism by Sarah Dowling
- Two chapters on Zolf's work appear in Poetry Matters: Neoliberalism, Affect, and the Posthuman in Twenty-First Century North American Feminist Poetics by Heather Milne
- Chapter on Zolf’s work by Bob Perelman appears in The Fate of Difficulty in the Poetry of Our Time
- 1968 births
- Living people
- 20th-century Canadian poets
- 21st-century Canadian poets
- Lesbian writers
- LGBT writers from Canada
- Jewish Canadian writers
- Literary editors
- LGBT Jews
- LGBT poets
- Non-binary writers
- Non-binary artists
- 21st-century American poets
- 21st-century American writers