Papers of Mary Crow

Mary Crow (b. 1933) is a poet, translator of poems, and professor emeritus of the Department of English at Colorado State University (CSU). She served as the poet laureate of Colorado from 1996 to 2010 and taught poetry in the English department at CSU from 1964 to 2002. She is the author of three collections of poetry, three chapbooks, and five translations.

Crow was born to Glenn and Rachel Kensett Crow in Mansfield, Ohio, on July 14, 1933. One of eight children, Crow was raised in Loudonville, Ohio, with her twin sister Martha. She graduated from the College of Wooster with a degree in English literature in 1955. Following graduation, Crow enrolled in graduate school at Indiana University, earning her master’s degree in 1963. During this time, she engaged in further study at the University of Iowa Graduate School and had a fellowship at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Other studies included summer study at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham at Stratford-on-Avon, England, language study (Spanish) at Cuernavaca Language School (formerly CIDOC), and Fulbright-funded language study (Serbo-Croatian) at UCLA.

Publications of Crow’s poetry include Going Home (Lynx House, 1979), The Business of Literature (Four Zoas, 1981), Borders (Boa Editions, Ltd., 1989), I Have Tasted the Apple (Boa Editions, Ltd., 1996), The High Cost of Living (Pudding House, 2002), which was the winner of the National Looking Glass Poetry Competition, and Addicted to the Horizon (CW Books, Word Tech Communication, 2012). Publications of Crow’s translations of poetry include Woman Who Has Sprouted Wings: Poems by Contemporary Latin American Women Poets (Latin American Literary Review Press, 1984); From the Country of Nevermore, a translation of a book of poems by Jorge Teillier (Wesleyan University Press, 1990); Vertical Poetry: Recent Poems, a translation of a book of poems by Roberto Juarroz (White Pine Press, 1992, reissued 2011); Engravings Torn from Insomnia, a translation of a book of poems by Olga Orozco (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2002); and Vertical Poetry: Last Poems, a translation of a book of poems by Roberto Juarroz (White Pine Press, 2011). Crow has published her work in magazines and journals, including American Poetry Review, Hotel Amerika, Cimarron Review, FIELD, Michigan Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Smartish Pace, and Ploughshares.

Mary Crow's awards and honors include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Colorado Council on the Arts, a Creative Writing Award from the Fulbright Commission to read her poems in the former Yugoslavia, a Colorado Book Award, a Translation Award from Columbia University's Translation Center, and Fulbright research awards to Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Venezuela. She has been awarded writer's residencies in the Czech Republic by Milkwood International, in Spain by Fundacion Valparaiso, in Israel by Miskenot Sha'ananim, in France by Camac, and in Egypt by El Gouna as well as at New York University, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Santa Fe Arts Institute, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Ragdale, Djerassi, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. At CSU, Crow received the award for Excellence in Research & Creativity, College of the Arts, Humanities, and Social Science (1990), the Oliver P. Pennock Distinguished Service Award (1993-94), the Faculty Woman’s Caucus achievement award (1997), and research grants for study in Argentina (1984, 1990), Chile (1991, 1998), Thailand (1992), Turkey and Israel (1993), Mexico (1994, 1995), Italy (1996), Peru (1997, 2001), Czech Republic (1999), China (2000), and Cambodia, China, and Thailand (2002).

Crow married Robert Woerner in 1956 and divorced in 1963. They have two children, Robert and David. She was later married to Fred Johnson. Crow continues to reside in Fort Collins.