SAGAN, Miriam (Anna) 1954-

PERSONAL: Born April 27, 1954, in New York, NY; daughter of Eli Jacob (a writer) and Frimi (a teacher; maiden name, Gillen) Sagan; married Robert Winson Sycamore, October 10, 1982 (marriage ended); married Richard Feldman; children: one daughter. Education: Harvard University, B.A., 1975; Boston University, M.A. (creative writing), 1977, doctoral study, beginning 1977. Politics: "Socialist/feminist."

ADDRESSES: Home—626 Kathryn Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501. E-mail—[email protected]; or c/o of the Santa Fe Poetry Broadside, broadside@sfpoetry. org.

CAREER: New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA, poetry instructor, 1975-76; Aspect Magazine, Somerville, MA, editor, 1976-79; Zephyr Press, Somerville, MA, editor, beginning 1979; artist-in-residence, New Mexico, 1986-88; currently editor of Santa Fe Poetry Broadside. Has taught writing at Santa Fe Community College, Taos Institute of the Arts, Aspen Writers Conference, and in workshops across the United States.

MEMBER: Poets and Writers, Poetry Society of America.

AWARDS, HONORS: Poetry award, Mademoiselle, 1974, for "Order of Things"; residency grants from Yaddo and MacDowell writing colonies; Barbara Deming Foundation grant/Money for Women; Border Regional Library Association Award.

WRITINGS:

Dangerous Body (poems), Samisdat (Richford, VT), 1976.

Vision's Edge (poems), Samisdat (Richford, VT), 1978.

Talking You Down, 1983.

Aegean Doorway, Zephyr Press (Somerville, MA), 1984.

Leaving the Temple, 1985.

Dharmakaya, 1986.

Eyebrows of Geese, 1986.

Acequia Madre: Through the Mother Ditch, Adastra Press (Easthampton, MA), 1988.

Coastal Lives, Center Press, 1991.

True Body, Parallax (Berkeley, CA), 1991.

Pocahontas Discovers America, Adastra Press (East-hampton, MA), 1993.

Tracing Our Jewish Roots (young adult nonfiction), illustrated by Beth Evans, J. Muir (Santa Fe, NM), 1993.

The Middle Atlantic States, Rourke Publications (Vero Beach, FL), 1994.

(Editor, with Sharon Niederman) New Mexico Poetry Renaissance, Red Crane Books (Santa Fe, NM), 1994.

Women's Suffrage, Lucent Books (San Diego, CA), 1995.

(Arranger, with Robert Winson) Canoeing up Cabarga Creek: Buddhist Poems, 1955-1986, Parallax Press (Berkeley, CA), 1996.

Malcolm X (young adult nonfiction), Lucent Books (San Diego, CA), 1997.

(Editor, with Joan Logghe) Another Desert: Jewish Poetry of New Mexico, Sherman Asher (Santa Fe, NM), 1998.

(Editor) Elizabeth Searle, Across the Windharp: Collected and New Haiku, La Alameda Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1999.

Unbroken Line: Writing in the Lineage of Poetry, Sherman Asher (Santa Fe, NM), 1999.

The Widow's Coat, Ahsahta Press (Boise, ID), 1999.

Archeology of Desire (poems), Red Hen Press (Granada Hills, CA), 2000.

Also author of Inadvertent Altar and The Art of Love. Work anthologized in One Hundred Flowers Anthology and Fighter's Peace Anthology. Contributor of poems and reviews to literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Northwest, Boston Phoenix, and Bardic Echoes. Nonfiction pieces published in the New Mexican, Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Magazine, Santa Fean, Crosswinds, and Sage Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: Miriam Sagan is a poet with many small-press publications to her credit. For her work as a poet and as a teacher of creative writing she has received several awards and fellowships. In addition to her teaching and workshop duties, Sagan is the editor of Santa Fe Poetry Broadside. Though her poetry books are not widely reviewed, a contributor to Bloomsbury Review asserted in a review of Sagan's volume Archaeology of Desire that "Sagan deserves a national audience."

The author has also written several nonfiction books for young adults, including Tracing Our Jewish Roots and Malcolm X. In Tracing Our Jewish Roots, Sagan provides an overview of life for Jews in Eastern European shtetls in the nineteenth century, describes the journey of immigrants to the United States, the life they found upon arrival, and the process of assimilation into mainstream American culture. Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper noted that, while Sagan does get a few of the details wrong, "the book has many strong points." In Malcolm X, on the other hand, Sagan plays detective, unraveling the various strands of evidence leading up to the main suspects in the mysterious death of this important African-American leader. Much time is spent on the suspicions surrounding rival leader Louis Farrakhan, which were finally laid to rest by the reconciliation of Malcolm's family with Farrakhan. The result is "a measured, up-to-date look at the death of the charismatic African-American leader," according to Cooper in Booklist.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Bloomsbury Review, March-April, 2002, review of Archaeology of Desire.

Booklist, February 15, 1994, Ilene Cooper, review of Tracing Our Jewish Roots, p. 1079; February 15, 1997, Ilene Cooper, review of Malcolm X, p. 1015.

Children's Bookwatch, May, 1995, review of Women's Suffrage, p. 6; July, 1997, review of Malcolm X, p. 7.

Curriculum Review, May, 1995, review of Women's Suffrage, p. 12.

Horn Book Guide, fall, 1994, review of Tracing Our Jewish Roots, p. 330; fall, 1995, review of Women's Suffrage, p. 323; fall, 1997, review of Malcolm X, p. 381.

Library Talk, November, 1994, review of Tracing Our Jewish Roots, p. 44.

School Library Journal, February, 1994, review of Tracing Our Jewish Roots, p. 117; July, 1995, review of Women's Suffrage, p. 97; March, 1997, review of Malcolm X, p. 208.

Small Press, spring, 1994, review of Tracing Our Jewish Roots, p. 67.

Village Voice, October 2, 1984, review of Aegean Doorway, p. 44.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1997, review of Malcolm X, p. 208.*