Lyn Lifshin or Lyn Diane Lipman (July 12, 1942 – December 9, 2019) was an American poet and teacher.^[1][2][3] Lifshin was “one of the early feminist poets" and one of the most widely published contemporary poets.^[4][3] Her work was autobiographical and explored sexuality, war, and a woman's role in society.^[5]

Born in Burlington, Vermont as Lyn Diane Lipmam and was raised in Middlebury, Vermont.^[6][2][3] Her father was from Boston and she visited the area frequently as a child.^[5] She was Jewish.^[3]

She earned a BA in English from Syracuse University in 1961 and a MA in English from the University of Vermont in 1963.^[2] She enrolled in a doctoral program in English at State University of New York at Albany from 1964 to 1966 where she was also a teaching fellow.^[2] She also studied at Brandeis University and the Bread Loaf School of English.^[2][5]

While at SUNY Albany, she began submitting her poems for publication. She was first published in 1967 in Kauri, the anti-war mimeo magazine.^[4] Her poetry was influenced by the Beat Poets, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton.^[5] Her poems feature incomplete sentences, pauses, short lines, sudden revelations, and "a breathless quality".^[3] Most of her poems are shorter than thirty lines.^[3] She tended to write many poems on the same subject rather than reworking a single poem.^[3]

She taught at the State University of New York at Cobleskill in 1970 and at Empire State College in 1973.^[2] She was a poet-in-residence at Mansfield State College in 1974, the University of Rochester in 1986, the Antioch Writers Conference in 1987, and Colorado Mountain College in 1994 and 1998.^[2][3][1] She taught at Union College from 1980 to 1985.^[3] She also taught creative writing workshops at various public venues such as libraries and her home in Niskayuna, New York.

Lifshin has been called "The Queen of the Small Presses".^[1][4][5] She was a very prolific poet, publishing over 130 books and chapbooks.^[1][4][3] Her work appeared in numerous literary magazines and cultural publications, including The American Poetry Review, The American Scholar, Christian Science Monitor, The Georgia Review, Ploughshares, Dunes Review, Rolling Stone Magazine, and Yankee.^[7][4][8] She also edited anthologies, appeared in others, and was the subject of the documentary film Lyn Lifshin: Not Made of Glass by director Mary Ann Lynch.^[1][6]

Lifshin received numerous fellowships, including the Yaddo Fellowship (1970, 1971, 1975, 1979, and 1980), the MacDowell Fellowship (1973), and the Millay Colony Fellowship (1975 and 1979).^[2] She won the Creative Artists Public Service Award in 1976, the Hart Crane Award, Cherry Valley Edition Jack Kerouac Award for Kiss the Skin Off in 1984, and the Madelin Sadin Award in 1989.^[1][2][3] The Albany Public Library Foundation named her a Literary Legend.^[1]

She married Eric Lifshin in 1966.^[2] She withdrew from Brandis University after getting married.^[5] They moved to Schenectady, New York in the 1970s where he worked for General Electric. They divorced in 1978.^[3]

Later in life, she divided her time between a home in Niskayuna, New York and a residence in Vienna, Virginia.^[1][6][7] She died in 2019 in Vienna after an illness and a fall.^[1]

• Fox, Hugh. Lyn Lifshin: A Critical Study. Albany: Whitston Publishing Company, 1985. ISBN 978-0878752997