NURKSE, D(ennis) 1949-

PERSONAL: Born December 13, 1949, in New York, NY; son of Racnar (an economist and musician) and Harriet (an artist; maiden name, Berger) Nurkse; married Lucille Nurkse, 1982 (divorced, 1996); children: Sonia. Education: Harvard College, B.A., 1970. Politics: "Human rights activist." Hobbies and other interests: Music.

ADDRESSES: Home—598 17th St., Apt. 1, Brooklyn, NY 11218. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Poet, writer, and translator. Defense for Children International-USA, New York, NY, program officer, 1988-93, translator, 1988-93; New School for Social Research (now New School University), New York, adjunct poetry faculty, 1998-2001.

MEMBER: PEN, Amnesty International USA (northeast representative, Children's Rights Network), National Writers Union.

AWARDS, HONORS: National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, 1984, 1995; Bess Hokin Prize, Modern Poetry Foundation, 1988; Whiting Writers Award, 1990; appointed poet laureate of Brooklyn, NY, beginning 1996; New York Foundation for the Arts poetry grant, 1999, 2000; Tanne Foundation grant, 2000; Dewitt Wallace fellowship, MacDowell Colony, 2000; Howard Moss Residency, Yaddo, 2001.

WRITINGS:

Isolation in Action, State Street Press (Brockport, NY), 1988.

Shadow Wars, Hanging Loose Press (Brooklyn, NY), 1988.

Staggered Lights, Owl Creek Books (Camano Island, WA), 1990.

Voices over Water, Graywolf Press (St. Paul, MN), 1993.

Leaving Xaia, Four Way Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Rules of Paradise, Four Way Books (New York, NY), 2001.

The Fall, Knopf (New York, NY), 2002.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Translations of medieval Spanish poetry.

SIDELIGHTS: D. Nurkse told CA: "My father died when I was eight. On the last day I saw him, he waved good-bye; I was too busy with a toy to wave back. I write to maintain a conversation with loved ones—or parts of the mind—I could not reach in other ways.

"I have always loved poetry. Childhood influences were the Psalms; later, Lorca, Yeats, and Elizabeth Bishop."