Poet Profile

Judith Chalmer

Judith Chalmer's poems have been published in journals such as the Green Mountains Review, Prairie Schooner, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Beloit Poetry Journal, as well as anthologies such as Beyond Lament (Northwestern University Press 1998) and the Anthology of New England Writers (1990). Her creative nonfiction has been published in anthologies including Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America (Seal Press 2004) and Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women (Haworth Press, 1997). She taught creative writing at Vermont College for twelve years and is currently the Executive Director of VSA Vermont, a nonprofit devoted to arts and disability.

Awards and Other Honors: First Prize, New England Writers' Association (1989); Honorable Mention, Wildwood Poetry Prize (1991); Honorable Mention, Pushcart Prize (1993); Onion River Arts Council "Great Performances" award for her original dance/narrative based on the lives of immigrants and refugees in Central Vermont: "Cruzando Fronteras/Preselenje/Clearing Customs" (2001).

Books Published: Judith Chalmer is the co-translator with author Michiiko Oishi of a book of haiku and tanka, Red Fish Alphabet [akasatana aksakana] (Honami Syoten: Tokyo, 2008). She is the author of a book of poems, Out of History's Junk Jar (Time Being Books: St. Louis, 1995).

THE FOLLOWING ARE TRANSLATIONS OF HAIKU WRITTEN BY OISHI AND CO-TRANSLATED BY CHALMER:

grandmother's cold tomb
at Zoshigaya
echoes in early spring

rain
on lilies of the valley
fragile allegretto

dentist smiles
pulling my tooth
spring storm

cockatiel
speaks alone
and you, my tongue?

spring lilacs
tricycle plunge
through a puddle

Credits: All selections are from Red Fish Alphabet [akasatana aksakana] (Honami Syoten: Tokyo, 2008), co-translated with Michiko Oishi.