Maureen N. McLane

Maureen N. McLane
Born (1967-12-24) December 24, 1967
EducationHarvard University (BA)
University of Oxford (BA)
University of Chicago (PhD)
OccupationsPoet, critic, professor

Maureen N. McLane (born December 24, 1967) is an American poet, critic, and professor. She received the 2002 National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.[1]

Early life and education

Maureen N. McLane was raised in upstate New York.[2] She received a BA from Harvard University in 1989, earned a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where she received another BA in 1991, and got her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1997.[3][4]

Career

McLane is the author of five books of poetry.[2] Her first full-length poetry collection, Same Life: Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008), was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry[5] and the Publishing Triangle Audre Lorde Award.[6]

Her follow-up book, World Enough: Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2010), was selected by Paul Muldoon in The New Yorker as a best poetry book of the year.[7]

McLane achieved greater recognition with the publication of her hybrid criticism-memoir My Poets (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012),[8] which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir and Autobiography.[2] The Paris Review editor Lorin Stein called it "the survey course of my dreams."[9] My Poets was lauded in The New York Times,[10] NPR,[11] The New York Observer,[12] and The Boston Globe.[13] Writing in Bookforum, Parul Sehgal remarked: "To read McLane is to be reminded that the brain may be an organ, but the mind is a muscle. Hers is a roving, amphibious intelligence; she's at home in the essay and the fragment, the polemic and the elegy."[14]

This Blue (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry.[15]

She is the Henry James Professor of English and American letters at New York University.[3] McLane has also been a contributor to Boston Review, The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, and The Washington Post.[2] In 2023, she received the James Merrill House Fellowship.[16]

Awards

Year Nominated Work Award Category Result Ref.
2002 National Book Critics Circle Awards Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing Winner [1]
2009 Same Life Publishing Triangle Awards Audre Lorde Award Finalist [6]
2010 Lambda Literary Awards Lesbian Poetry [17]
2012 My Poets National Book Critics Circle Awards Memoir and Autobiography [18]
New York University College of Arts and Science Golden Dozen Award Winner [19]
2014 This Blue National Book Awards Poetry Finalist [20]
2017 Some Say The Believer Book Awards Poetry Shortlisted [21]
2018 Publishing Triangle Awards Audre Lorde Award Finalist [6]
2021 New York University College of Arts and Science Golden Dozen Award Winner [19]

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

  • Same Life: Poems. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2008.
  • World Enough: Poems. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2010.
  • This Blue: Poems. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2014.
  • Mz N: The Serial. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2016.
  • Some Say: Poems. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 2017.
  • What I'm Looking For: Selected Poems 2005-2017. Penguin. 2019.
  • More Anon: Selected Poems. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 2021.

Poems

Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
"Taking a walk in the woods after having taken a walk in the woods with you" 2013 The New Yorker. Vol. 89, no. 2. February 25, 2013.

Non-fiction

  • Romanticism and the Human Sciences: Poetry, Population, and the Discourse of the Species. Cambridge University Press. 2000.
  • Balladeering, Minstrelsy, and the Making of British Romantic Poetry. Cambridge University Press. 2008.
  • My Poets. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2012.

References

  1. 1 2 "2002". National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Maureen N. McLane". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  3. 1 2 "Maureen N. McLane". NYU Arts & Science. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  4. ↑ Gibson, Lydialyle (Spring 2014). "Between Verses". Tableau. University of Chicago. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  5. ↑ "Lammys Directory: 1988-Present". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  6. 1 2 3 "The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry". The Publishing Triangle. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  7. ↑ Muldoon, Paul (2010-12-16). "Ten Great Poetry Collections of 2010". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  8. ↑ Fischer, BK (2013-08-08). "Her Poets". Boston Review. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  9. ↑ "Staff Picks: Tea Cakes and Putin and Vets, Oh My!". The Paris Review. 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  10. ↑ Fried, Daisy (2012-08-17). "Under the Influence". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  11. ↑ Muyumba, Walton (2012-06-28). "Personal Essays Engage Power Of Poetry". NPR. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  12. ↑ Robbins, Michael (2012-06-12). "Anxieties of Influence: Maureen N. McLane Sizes Up the Poets Who Made Her Who She Is". Observer. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  13. ↑ Brodeur, Michael Andor (June 24, 2012). "How does a poem mean?". The Boston Globe. p. K5. Retrieved December 25, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Sehgal, Parul (June 2012). "The Body Electric". Bookforum. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  15. ↑ "This Blue". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  16. ↑ "Writer-in-Residence Testimonies". James Merrill House. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  17. ↑ "21st Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. 2010-02-18. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  18. ↑ "2012". National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  19. 1 2 "Honorary Citation by Professor Claire Connolly for Maureen McLane". University College Cork. 24 March 2026. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  20. ↑ "Announcing.... the 2014 National Book Award Finalists!". The Poetry Foundation. October 15, 2014. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  21. ↑ "The Believer Poetry Award". Believer Magazine. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
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