Cynthia Macdonald

Cynthia Lee Macdonald (February 2, 1928 – August 3, 2015) was an American poet, educator, and psychoanalyst.[1]

Cynthia Macdonald

Life

Macdonald was born in Manhattan to screenwriter Leonard Macdonald and his wife Dorothy Kiam Macdonald.[2]

She earned a B.A. in English from Bennington College in 1950 and pursued studies in voice at the Mannes School of Music in 1951-1952.[3] She pursued a career in opera and concert singing from 1953-1966.[4] After changing her focus to poetry, Macdonald received a master's degree in writing and literature from Sarah Lawrence College.[5]

She went on to teach creative writing at Sarah Lawrence University and Johns Hopkins University.[6] She co-founded the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston with fellow poet Stanley Plumly in 1979. She was a member of the English Department at the University of Houston until her retirement in 2004,[7] receiving the Esther Farfel Award for faculty excellence.

Macdonald also worked as a psychoanalyst, having received a certification from the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute in 1986. She specialized in working with people who had writer's block.[8]

She was a member of the board of directors of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.[9]

She wrote the libretto for The Rehearsal (1978), an opera by Thomas Benjamin.

She was the mother of American artist Jennifer Macdonald. She was also the mother of Scott MacDonald.

Awards
  • Three NEA grants (two for poetry and one for a libretto) [10][11]
  • Guggenheim Fellowship [12]
  • National Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters award "for "recognition of the contribution of her poetry", 1977[13]
  • O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize[14]

Works

Books
  • Macdonald, Cynthia (June 1972). Amputations: Poems. George Braziller. ISBN 0-8076-0656-1.
  • Macdonald, Cynthia (April 1977). Transplants: Poems. George Braziller. ISBN 0-8076-0810-6.
  • Macdonald, Cynthia (1980-01-01). (W)Holes. NY: Alfred A. Knopf Incorporated. ISBN 0-394-50852-1.
  • Macdonald, Cynthia (1985-09-12). Alternate Means of Transport. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-72968-4.
  • Macdonald, Cynthia (1992-11-03). Living Wills: New and Selected Poems. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-74278-6.
  • Macdonald, Cynthia (1997-01-01). I Can't Remember. Alfred a Knopf Inc. ISBN 0679454578.
gollark: I mean, my `node_modules` for a somewhat complex client/server webapp is 175MB, so I can see where that's coming from.
gollark: So your objection is the 6 million things, and not having to run `npm install` or whatever?
gollark: Probably decent for simple projects.
gollark: https://zeroserver.io is a new thing I've looked at which is kind of similar.
gollark: Basically... do Python I guess?

References
  1. "Cynthia MacDonald - Obituary - New York, NY". New York Times. August 16, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  2. Grimes, William (2015-08-24). "Cynthia Macdonald, Poet Known for Humor and Ability to Shock, Dies at 87". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  3. "Macdonald, Cynthia 1928- - Dictionary definition of Macdonald, Cynthia 1928- | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  4. "Macdonald, Cynthia 1928- - Dictionary definition of Macdonald, Cynthia 1928- | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  5. Grimes, William (2015-08-24). "Cynthia Macdonald, Poet Known for Humor and Ability to Shock, Dies at 87". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  6. Grimes, William. "Cynthia Macdonald, Poet Known for Humor and Ability to Shock, Dies at 87". nytimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  7. Grimes, William. "Cynthia Macdonald, Poet Known for Humor and Ability to Shock, Dies at 87". nytimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  8. Grimes, William. "Cynthia Macdonald, Poet Known for Humor and Ability to Shock, Dies at 87". nytimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  9. "Cynthia MacDonald -- 3rd Annual Literary Festival -- Old Dominion University -- Sept 29-30; Oct 1-2, 1980". odu.edu.
  10. http://www3.wooster.edu/ArtfulDodge/interviews/macdonald.htm Archived May 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  11. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-11-19. Retrieved 2009-11-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Nothing at website for "Cynthia MacDonald" per search there. Archived July 10, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  12. http://www.gf.org/fellows/9167-cynthia-macdonald org Archived June 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  13. "Macdonald, Cynthia 1928- - Dictionary definition of Macdonald, Cynthia 1928- | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  14. http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=968 Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
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