Anne Blonstein

Anne D. Blonstein (22 April 1958 – 19 April 2011) was a British poet and translator, long-resident in Basel, Switzerland, where she worked as a freelance translator and editor.

She was the author of six full-length collections, the blue pearl, worked on screen, memory's morning, the butterflies and the burnings, correspondence with nobody, and to be continued. She was also known for her poetic sequences that work with notarikon – originally a rabbinic and Kabbalistic method used to interpret the Hebrew Scriptures. She redeployed and elaborated it as a contemporary poetic procedure, engaging with diverse languages and texts, both ancient and modern.

Early life The great-granddaughter of Jewish immigrants to Britain at the turn of the 20th century, Anne Blonstein was born and raised in the Home Counties – first Harpenden, Hertfordshire, then moving with her family to Surrey when she was 11.

Blonstein also collaborated on projects with other artists, including the ceramist Pat King, and the Swiss composers Mela Meierhans and Margrit Schenker. Her works appeared in Denver Quarterly, Descant, Dusie, How2, Indiana Review and the Notre Dame Review.

Death Anne Blonstein died in 2011, after a long, undisclosed illness, aged 52.

Publications