Dine, Carol

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Dine, Carol

PERSONAL: Married (divorced); children: one son.

ADDRESSES: Home—Boston, MA. Office—English Department, Suffolk University, 8 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108. Agent—Peter Rubie, The Peter Rubie Literary Agency, 240 W. 35th St., Ste. 500, New York, NY 10001. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Poet, memoirist, essayist, public speaker, and educator. Suffolk University, Boston, MA, adjunct professor of English. Poet-in-residence at MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ragdale Foundation, Millay Colony, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Cape Cod Writers' Conference, and Wurlitzer Foundation. Worked in advertising and public relations. Member of board of directors, Writers' Room.

AWARDS, HONORS: Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant, 1995, for manuscript, "In Remission"; Frances Locke Memorial Award, Bitter Oleander Press, and St. Botolph Foundation grant, both for poetry series on the art of Van Gogh; Barbara Bradley Award, New England Poetry Club; Sword of Hope Award, American Cancer Society, for journal "Treatments," published in the Boston Herald.

WRITINGS:

Naming the Sky (poems), Golden Quill Press (Francestown, NH), 1988.

Trying to Understand the Lunar Eclipse (poems), Erie Street Press (Oak Park, IL), 1992.

Places in the Bone: A Memoir, Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick, NJ), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including Bitter Oleander, Blue Mesa Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Poetry Review, Madison Review, Negative Capability, Women's Review of Books, Nebraska Review, Sojourner, Spoon River Review, Colorado Review, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Salamander. Contributor to anthologies, including To Mend the World: Women Reflect on 9/11 and Living on the Margins: Women Writers on Breast Cancer.

Author's works have been translated into Spanish.

ADAPTATIONS: A piece based on the author's poem series "Light and Bone" was performed by choreographer Paula Josa-Jones, 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: Poet, author, and educator Carol Dine is a former advertising and public-relations professional who did not write her first poem until she was thirty years old. The poem was inspired by the breakup of her marriage. Since then, Dine has published numerous poems and essays in prominent journals. She has published two poetry collections, has held several prestigious poet-in-residence positions, and has taught English as an adjunct professor at Boston's Suffolk University.

While Dine experienced professional success later in life, her early years were affected by trauma. She was the victim of child abuse and she gave custody of her young son to her ex-husband in order to prevent herself from abusing him. She also suffered from breast cancer and experienced numerous recurrences of the disease. Dine explores these episodes in Places in the Bone: A Memoir. "Sifting through her life with her poet's attention, Dine creates a startlingly honest exploration that longs to find the truth," commented Naomi Millán in ForeWord Online.

Dine's memoir looks deeply at how the abuse she endured affected her relationships with men. The memoir also chronicles her growth as a poet, and how writing and poetry helped her cope with difficult circumstances. Library Journal contributor Elizabeth Williams likened the text to "a poem that conveys emotions and fragments of memory." Millán concluded that the book is "brave and earnest."