Lorine Niedecker photo from Beloit College, her alma mater

Lorine Niedecker (1903-1970)

A selective list of online literary criticism for American objectivist poet Lorine Niedecker, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars and articles published in peer-reviewed sources

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introduction & biography

"Lorine Niedecker." An introduction to Lorine Niedecker, includes excerpts of reputable critical discussions of some poems. Cary Nelson, ed. Modern American Poetry (Univ. of Illinois).

Penberthy, Jenny, ed. "Introduction" to Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works (U of Calif. P). Jacket 18 (Aug. 2002).

"Lorine Niedecker." Short, encyclopedia-type introduction to Niedecker's themes and techniques, with a biography and samples of her poems. Poetry Foundation.

"My other country (PoemTalk #77): Lorine Niedecker, 'Foreclosure' and 'Wilderness.'" Poemtalk at Jacket Magazine, ed. Al Filreis.

"Lorine Niedecker." An introduction, with links to other Objectivist Poets and other midwestern poets. Academy of American Poets.

Beam, Jeffery. "Old Sunflower, You Bowed to No One." Oyster Boy Review 17 (Fall 2003).

"Lorine Niedecker." The Friends of Lorine Niedecker. An active, well-maintained web site. Includes a short biography, sample poems, news and events, links, bibliography, educational resources, a newsletter, with issues available from 2005 to the present, and photos.

"Archives: Lorine Niedecker." At Beliot College, Niedecker's alma mater.

literary criticism

Arnold, Elizabeth. "On Lorine Niedecker." Chicago Review 49, 1 (Spring 2003), pp. 98-108.

Breslin, Glenna. "Between Niedecker and Zukofsky, an Excerpt." A short article on the letters exchanged between Lorine Niedecker and poet Louis Zukofsky. HOW(ever) 2, 1(November 1984).

Cox, Kenneth. "Lorine Niedecker's Poetry." Writes Cox, "The withholding of any indication of tone, and thereby of any sign of reaction, characterizes her work. Equivocal indefinites veil intention. Veiling is not a fault." Jacket 28 (Oct. 2005).

Dahlen, Beverly. "Notes On Reading Lorine Niedecker." How(ever) 1, 1 (May 1983).

Jenkins, G. Matthew. "Lorine Niedecker, Simone de Beauvoir, and the Sexual Ethics of Experience." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 23, 2 (Fall, 2004), pp. 311-337 [free at jstor].

LeMardeley, Marie-Christine. "Property, Poverty, Poetry: Lorine Niedecker's Quiet Revelations." LeMardeley focuses on Niedecker's interactions with the world around her, and asks how her poetry reveals autobiographical truths that go beyond mere confession. Poetry and Autobiography, Open Editions 5, 1 (2007).

Willis, Elizabeth. "The Poetics of Affinity: Lorine Niedecker, William Morris, and the Art of Work." Contemporary Literature 46, No. 4 (Winter, 2005), pp. 579-603.

Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works. A review by August Kleinzahler, who writes, "This Collected Works should succeed, at long last, in establishing Niedecker as one of the most important and original poets of this past century and in bringing her work into the mainstream, where it belongs." London Review of Books 5 June 2003 [first half of article only].

"Green, Prickly Humanity: Rural Wisconsin's exhilarating, lost poet." A review of Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works, by Karen Volkman, in Boston Review Dec. 2002/Jan. 2003.

"An Interview With Editor Jenny Penberthy" in which she discusses Lorine Niedecker. Poets & Writers 3 May 2002.

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