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Rochelle Ratner, Poet/Critic/Publisher
Ratner lives at 609 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10024; her
phone number is (212) 769-0498, her e.mail address rratner@mail.idt.net.
She has been widely published as a poet, novelist and critic with the following books to her credit: Zodiac Arrest, Ridgeway Press, 1995 (poems); Someday Songs, BkMk/University of Missouri Press, 1992, and--on an audiocassette with Suzanne Toren doing the reading put out by JBI Poetry Series, fall 1992 (poems); The Lion's Share, Coffee House Press, 1991 (novel); Bobby's Girl, Coffee House Press, 1986 (novel); (Swedish translation, Bra Bocker, forthcoming)
Trying To Understand What It Means To Be A Feminist: Essays on Women Writers, Contact II, 1984; Practicing To Be A Woman: New & Selected Poems, Scarecrow, 1982;
Hide & Seek, Ommation Press, l980 (poems);
Sea Air In a Grave Ground Hog Turns Toward, 'Gull, 1980 (poems); Combing The Waves, Hanging Loose, 1979 (poems);
Quarry, New Rivers Press, 1978 (poems);
The Tightrope Walker, The Pennyworth Press, 1977 (poems);
Pirate's Song, Jordan Davies Press, l976 (poems);
The Mysteries, Ragnarok Press, 1976 (poems);
Paul Colinet: Selected Prose Poems, Clown War, 1976 (translations); False Trees, New Rivers Press, l973 (poems); A Birthday of Waters, New Rivers Press, l971 (poems); Variations On A Theme In Blue, Toothpaste Press, 197l (broadside)
Her electronic publications include: Hide & Seek, a original poem-photo series based on the limited-edition volume above, available through Light and Dust, whose URL is http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/lrr-03.htm; Paul Colinet: Selected Prose Poems, Pirate's Song, and The Mysteries are reprinted on Connecticut College's Contemporary American Poetry Archive, whose URL is http://camel.conncoll.edu/library/capa/capa.html; and her
"Pretexts" sequence from Combing the Waves is available online through Light and Dust (http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/homeligh.htm).
Ratner and/or her work has been written up in the New York Times Book Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, Newsday, The Columbus Dispatch, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Choice, Parnassus, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Fiction International, Margins and Small Press Review
Three contemporary poets are especially important to Ratner: Denise Levertov, Robert Duncan and Charles Olson, as are William Carlos Williams and H.D.
In writing about her tastes in poetry, she says, "I'm bothered by formalism (including New Formalism) except in rare cases. To my mind, there are two ways the poet can approach the universal -- from the self outward, from the outer world toward the self. One way or another, it's crucial that the finest poetry reach that peak."
As a critic, she strives for "Insight, balance, readability. If a review does nothing more than tell us what's in the book, either by listing the themes or by over-quoting, it's useless." Her response to the Comprepoetica survey's question about her impression of contemporary poetry was brief: "Tumultuous." She lists American Book Review, American Poetry Review, Parnassus, and the Light & Dust web site as worthy of a listing in the Comprepoetica dictionary.
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