Nathalie Anderson

Nathalie F. Anderson (born July 28, 1948) is an American poet and librettist. She is a 1993 Pew Fellow, and author of several books of poetry: Following Fred Astaire, Crawlers, Quiver, Held and Firmly Bound (a chapbook), Stain, and Rough. In collaboration with composer Thomas Whitman, she has authored five libretti: The Black Swan, Sukey in the Dark, A Scandal in Bohemia., The Royal Singer, and Cassandra. Whitman and Anderson have also collaborated on the choral piece Babylon.

Life Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Anderson earned her bachelor's degree from Agnes Scott College in 1970, her master's degree from Georgia State University, and her Ph.D. degree from Emory University.

She has been teaching at Swarthmore College since 1982 and is currently a Professor Emerita in their Department of English Literature. She served as Director of their Program in Creative Writing as well as a Poet in Residence at the Rosenbach Museum & Library.

Anderson runs Philadelphia's literary event listserv, Lit-Philly.

Some of Anderson's work has been featured in various print and online journals: Atlanta Review, Poetry Daily, Fox Chase Review, Natural Bridge, The New Yorker, Paris Review, The Recorder: The Journal of American Irish Historical Society, Prairie Schooner, Denver Quarterly, Nimrod, Inkwell Magazine, The Louisville Review, and Southern Poetry Review.

On November 8, 2012, University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House inaugurated the Eva and Leo Sussman Poetry Program with poetry readings by featured guest writers and instructors, Nathalie Anderson, Elaine Terranova, and Joan Hutton Landis.

Awards 1998 Washington Prize from Word Works for Following Fred Astaire 2000 "Slow Airs" - Grand Prize Co-Winner in Inkwell Magazine's poetry competition for 2000 2004 "Squeeze" - Finalist for the James Hearst Poetry Prize, published in the North American Review 2005 The Robert McGovern Publication Prize, Ashland University, Ashland Poetry Press, for Crawlers

Works

Poetry books

Anderson, Nathalie (2017). Held and Firmly Bound. Chapin, SC: Muddy Ford Press. Anderson, Nathalie (2017). Stain. Washington, D.C.: The Word Works. Anderson, Nathalie (2024). Rough. Washington, D.C.: The Word Works.

Anthology appearances

Performances