Ronk, Martha C. 1940-
(Martha Clare Ronk)

PERSONAL:

Born February 19, 1940, in Cleveland, OH; daughter of John (in sales) and Mary Ronk; children: Jacob Lifson. Education: Wellesley College, B.A. (with honors), 1962; Yale University, Ph.D., 1968.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Rd,. Los Angeles, CA 90041. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

North Carolina College at Durham (now North Carolina Central University), Durham, lecturer; Tufts University, Medford, MA, assistant professor, 1967-71; Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, CA, coordinator of curriculum, 1972-80; Occidental College, Los Angeles, professor of English and creative writing, 1980—. University of Southern California, parttime teacher, 1978-79. Littoral Books, editor; gives readings from her works.

MEMBER:

Modern Language Association of America, Associated Writing Programs, Shakespeare Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

MacArthur Foundation grant, 1985. MacDowell Colony residency, 1991.

WRITINGS:

Desire in LA (poetry), University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1990.

Desert Geometries (poetry), illustrated by Don Suggs, Littoral Books (Los Angeles, CA), 1992.

State of Mind (poetry), Sun and Moon (College Park, MD), 1995.

Eyetrouble: Poems, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1998.

Recent Terrains: Terraforming the American West (poetry), photographs by Laurie Brown, concluding essay by Charles E. Little, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD) 2000.

Displeasures of the Table (nonfiction), Green Integer Books (Los Angeles, CA), 2000.

(Editor, with Paul Vangelisti) Place as Purpose: Poetry from the Western States, Volume 1, Sun and Moon (College Park, MD), 2002.

Why/Why Not (poetry), University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2003.

In a Landscape of Having to Repeat (poetry), Omnidawn Publishing (Richmond, CA), 2005.

Coauthor of screenplays Merlene of the Movies, Nancy Malone Productions; and The Way, Learning Corporation of America, 1980. Author of the chapbooks "Allegories," "Emblems," and "Quotidian." Work represented in anthologies, including A Vietnam Requiem, Kitchen Collective, 1988; Ribot: On Music, edited by Paul Vangelisti, Sun and Moon (College Park, MD), 1999; Poetry Loves Poetry: Anthology of LA Poets; and Gertrude Stein Anthology. Contributor of poetry, articles, and reviews to periodicals, including Ploughshares, Hanging Loose, Antioch Review, Talisman, Massachusetts Review, and Poetry LA.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Publishers Weekly, February 17, 2003, review of Why/Why Not, p. 71.