Lyn Hejinian
Illustration — Lyn Hejinian Lyn Hejinian (May 17, 1941 – February 24, 2024) was an American poet, essayist, translator, and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is known for her landmark work My Life (Sun & Moon, 1987, original version Burning Deck, 1980), as well as her book of essays, The Language of Inquiry (University of California Press, 2000).
Lyn Hejinian

rmajzels · YouTube: Lyn Hejinian The Book Of A Thousand Eyes - 720p.mov – View/save archived versions on archive.org · CC BY 3.0
- Full name
- Carolyn Frances Hall.
- Born
- 1941. · San Francisco.
- Died
- 2024. · Berkeley.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- translator, poet, essayist and writer.
- Fields
- literature, poetry, essay and translating activity.
- Education
- Harvard University.
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship, Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets and Shelley Memorial Award.
- Languages
- English.
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Illustration — Lyn Hejinian Lyn Hejinian (May 17, 1941 – February 24, 2024) was an American poet, essayist, translator, and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is known for her landmark work My Life (Sun & Moon, 1987, original version Burning Deck, 1980), as well as her book of essays, The Language of Inquiry (University of California Press, 2000).
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wikidata · Q6708326 · wikipedia · Lyn Hejinian
In this article
Biography
Biography
Lyn Hejinian studied at Harvard University. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is literature, poetry and essay. Employment is recorded with University of California, Berkeley. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship, Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets and Shelley Memorial Award.
Lyn Hejinian was born in the San Francisco Bay Area to Carolyn Erskine and Chaffee Earl Hall, Jr. She attended Harvard University where she met and married John P. Hejinian in 1961. She graduated from Harvard in 1963. Lyn and John had two children and eventually divorced. Hejinian lived in Berkeley, California, with her husband composer/musician Larry Ochs. She published over a dozen books of poetry and numerous books of essays as well as two volumes of translations of the Russian poet Arkadii Dragomoshchenko. From 1976 to 1984 she was editor of Tuumba Press, and from 1981 to 1999 she co-edited (with Barrett Watten) Poetics Journal. She was the co-editor of Atelos, which publishes cross-genre collaborations between poets and other artists. Hejinian also worked on a number of collaborative projects with painters, musicians, and filmmakers. With Tom Mandel, Barrett Watten, Ron Silliman, Kit Robinson, Carla Harryman, Rae Armantrout, Ted Pearson, Steve Benson, and Bob Perelman, she was a co-author of The Grand Piano: An Experiment in Collective Autobiography. (Detroit, MI: Mode A/This Press, 2006–2010). With Leslie Scalapino, she organized Poets in Need to assist poets facing crises. She taught poetics and contemporary literature at University of California, Berkeley. Hejinian lectured in Russia and around Europe. She received grants and awards from the California Arts Council, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Fund, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation and served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2007 to 2012. Hejinian sponsored the NBC Thursday Night DeCal course at UC Berkeley. Hejinian died on February 24, 2024, at the age of 82.
Translations
Translations
• Description. poems by Arkadii Dragomoshchenko. LA: Sun & Moon Press, 1990. • "Arkadii Dragomoshchenko selections" in Third Wave: The New Russian Poetry, ed. Kent Johnson and Stephen Ashby. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992. • Xenia. poems by Arkadii Dragomoshchenko. LA: Sun & Moon Press. 1994.
Editor
Editor
• A Guide to Poetics Journal: Writing in the Expanded Field 1982-1998 (with Barrett Watten). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2013. • Poetics Journal Digital Archive (with Barrett Watten). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2014.
Critical studies and reviews of Hejinian's work
Critical studies and reviews of Hejinian's work
* • Christopher Beach, "'Events Were Not Lacking': David Antin's Talk Poems, Lyn Hejinian's My Life, and the Poetics of Cultural Memory," in Edward Foster and Joseph Donahue, eds, The World in Time and Space: Towards a History of Innovative American Poetry in Our Time, Talisman 23-26 (2002). • Aerial 10: Lyn Hejinian. Edited Rod Smith & Jen Hofer (2015).
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.
Origins and background
Origins and background
The following is established of origins and background. Hejinian died in 2024 at Berkeley. It is also recorded that lyn Hejinian is recorded at birth as Carolyn Frances Hall. Born in 1941 at San Francisco.
Places
Named by the record
Places
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San Francisco.
Birth place
Berkeley.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Lyn Hejinian, Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, 2014
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2014
reference work
- “Lyn Hejinian”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q6708326: Lyn Hejinian
General reference · Wikidata
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General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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