Newsletter sign up

Be the first to know when new American Life in Poetry columns are live.

Frannie Lindsay

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Poet Frannie Lindsay earned a BA at Russell Sage College and an MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. The daughter of a concert violinist, she stopped writing poetry for ten years to devote herself to classical piano. In an interview with Kate Greenstreet, Lindsay stated, “Over time—and this is still true—I found that I couldn't keep both music and poetry going with the seriousness that each required. … Looking back, I realize that, to me, the language of music had picked up where the language of words left off.”
 
Lindsay’s emotionally precise narratives explore themes of loss and growth with spare musicality. Lindsay is the author of several full-length collections of poetry, including Mayweed (2009), winner of the Washington Prize; Lamb (2006); and Where She Always Was (2004), which J. D. McClatchy chose for the May Swenson Award. Lindsay’s poetry has also been featured on Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, and The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor.
 
Her honors include the Missouri Review Prize, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Millay Colony. She lives in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Column 304

The Thrift Shop Dresses