http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8k077nv No online items Norma Cole Papers Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Copyright 2015 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 [email protected] URL: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/sca/index.html Norma Cole Papers MSS 0766 1 Descriptive Summary Languages: English Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 Title: Norma Cole Papers Creator: Cole, Norma Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0766 Physical Description: 36 Linear feet(84 archives boxes, 4 card file boxes, 1 flat box, and 1 map case folder) Date (inclusive): 1940-2014 (bulk 1985-2014) Abstract: Papers of poet, artist and translator Norma Cole. Cole lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area and collaborated with American, French and Canadian poets. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, notebooks, translations, photographs, negatives, sound and video recordings, digital media, artwork and ephemera. Scope and Content of Collection Papers of poet, artist and translator Norma Cole. Cole lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area and collaborated with American, French and Canadian poets. The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, notebooks, translations, photographs, negatives, sound and video recordings, digital media, artwork and ephemera. Arranged in thirteen series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS BY COLE, 4) COLLABORATIVE WORKS, 5) WORKS BY OTHERS, 6) TRANSLATIONS, 7) ARTWORK, 8) EPHEMERA, 9) SUBJECT FILES, 10) PHOTOGRAPHS 11) SOUND RECORDINGS, 12) VIDEO RECORDINGS and 13) DIGITAL MEDIA. Biography Poet, translator, visual artist and curator Norma Cole was born in Toronto, Canada on May 12, 1945. Although Anglophone by birth, she began to learn and speak French during her middle-school years. She studied at the University of Toronto, receiving a B.A. in Modern Languages and Literature (French and Italian) in 1967 and an M.A. in French Language and Literature in 1969. After finishing university, she spent several years living in a small French village in the foothills of the Alpes-Maritimes near Nice. While there, she began to form relationships with French writers and furthered an extensive knowledge of French films that continued throughout her career. She also began to draw and sculpt, leading to a lifelong involvement with the visual arts, and gave birth to a son. She returned to Toronto in 1971, where she completed a degree in early childhood education. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1977, where she soon met and became involved with a circle of poets around Robert Duncan that included Michael Palmer, David Levi Strauss, Laura Moriarty and Aaron Shurin. During return trips to France in the 1970s and 80s she met the poets Claude Royet-Journoud and Emmanuel Hocquard, whose work was among the first she translated for English publication. Cole's bilingualism and interest in phenomenology led to her involvement with the Language school of poetry during the 1980s and early 1990s. Cole first published her own poetry at age 41 (in the magazine Temblor); her first book ( Mace Hill Remap, published by the press of a French poet, Joseph Simas) and first appearance in an anthology ( O/One An Anthology) were published two years later. Since then, she has published over thirty books and chapbooks, including Where Shadows Will: Selected Poems 1988-2008 (City Lights, 2009), Win These Posters and Other Unrelated Prizes Inside (Omnidawn, 2012), and the artists' book Collective Memory (Granary Books, 2006). The latter coincided with an art installation of the same title that she curated for the exhibition "Poetry and Its Arts: Bay Area Interactions, 1954-2004" at the California Historical Society, in which she could often be seen inhabiting a 1950s living room, an instance of a project to translate purely verbal work into the expanded dimensions of performance. Her translations include A Woman with Several Lives by Jean Daive (2011), It Then by Danielle Collobert (1989) and her Notebooks (2003), The Spirit God and the Properties of Nitrogen by Fouad Gabriel Naffah (2004), and This Story is Mine by Emmanuel Hocquard. Cole's work has been recognized by awards and grants from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Award for Poetry, the Gertrude Stein Award (3 times), the Fund for Poetry, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Richardson Award for Non-Fiction Prose (for her essay/lecture "The Poetics of Vertigo"), and the French Ministry of Culture. She has served on numerous editorial boards and boards of directors. She has read from her own work (over 125 times, including UC San Diego in 1989 and 2000) and lectured widely in the U.S., Canada, and France, and held adjunct and visiting professorships and residencies at over two dozen institutions, including the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the Naropa Institute, and the University of California, Berkeley. She continues to live in San Francisco with frequent return visits Norma Cole Papers MSS 0766 2 to France. Restrictions Media is restricted. Researchers may request user copies be produced. Photographic negatives in the negative archive are restricted. Researchers may request permission to view negatives from the director of Special Collections & Archives. Publication Rights Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection. Preferred Citation Norma Cole Papers, MSS 766. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. Acquisition Note Acquired 2014. Subjects and Indexing Terms Women poets -- Archives Waldrop, Keith -- Correspondence Scalapino, Leslie -- Correspondence Waldrop, Rosmarie -- Correspondence Cole, Norma -- Archives BIOGRAPHICAL Scope and Content of Series Series 1) BIOGRAPHICAL: Biographical documents on Norma Cole and her writings, awards, and employment. Arranged in the following subseries: A) Biographical Information, B) Interviews and C) Calendars. A) Biographical Information: Cole's curricula vitae, identification cards, bibliographies, and biographical notes, as well as materials on her literary awards and teaching appointments. Additional information on Cole's awards can be found in the TRANSLATIONS series. B) Interviews: Published and unpublished typescript interviews with Norma Cole from 2009-2013. The interviews are arranged by author and include drafts and correspondence. An additional interview with Cole can be found in the SOUND RECORDINGS series. C) Calendars: Most of Cole's calendars (1980-2011) are highly annotated with notes on appointments, travel, addresses, and phone numbers. Many calendars include Post-its and enclosures such as business cards, annotated receipts, and ephemera. Biographical Information Box 1, Folder 1 Bibliographies 1998 Box 1, Folder 2 Bibliography index cards 1984-1994 Box 1, Folder 3 Biographical notes 1996-2000 and undated Box 1, Folder 4 California Nurses Association Patient Advocate award 1996 Box 1, Folder 5 Contemporary Authors biography 2013 Box 1, Folder 6 Creative Work Fund grant 2004 Box 1, Folder 7 Cross, Michael. "Norma Cole Introduction" undated Box 1, Folder 8 Curricula vitae 2000-2013 Box 1, Folder 9 Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant 2006 Box 1, Folder 10 Identification cards 1981-1999 and undated Box 1, Folder 11 Mills College application 1996 Box 1, Folder 12 Naropa Institute employment agreement 1995 Box 1, Folder 13 University of California, Berkeley Regents Lectureship nomination 2008 Box 1, Folder 14 Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Award in Poetry 1991-1992 Oversize FB-543, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Award in Poetry - Readings announcement Folder 2 1992 Norma Cole Papers MSS 0766 3 BIOGRAPHICAL Interviews Interviews Box 1, Folder 15 Brito, Manuel. Questionnaire for Norma Cole undated Box 1, Folder 16 Lewis, Susan. The Next Big Thing Interview undated Box 1, Folder 17 Morrison, Rusty. A Brief Interview with Norma Cole, Omnidawn ca. 2012 Box 1, Folder 18 RTM. Interview Questions for Norma Cole 2009 January 9 Box 1, Folder 19 Villa-Ignacio, Teresa. Podcast Interview 2013 Calendars Oversize FB-543, 1980-1986 Folder 3-5 Box 1, 1987-1990 Folder 20-23 Box 2, Folder 1-8 1991-2001 Box 3, Folder 1-6 2002-2006 Box 4, Folder 1-5 2007-2011 CORRESPONDENCE Scope and Content of Series Series 2) CORRESPONDENCE: Incoming and outgoing correspondence in English and French with poets, writers, translators, artists, art galleries, editors, publishers, and Cole's family and friends. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's surname or corporate name. Files may contain related correspondence by additional people, drafts of manuscripts, artwork, photographs, and ephemera. Correspondence with editors and publishers may be filed under the corporate name or the personal name, and files may contain personal as well as business correspondence. Correspondence regarding publications, translations, or artwork is filed in the WRITINGS, TRANSLATIONS or ARTWORK series, respectively. Cole corresponded with many American, French and Canadian poets, artists, and writers. Prominent correspondents include Marina Adams, Anne-Marie Albiach, Steve Dickison, Stacy Doris, Alec Finlay, Dominique Fourcade, Benjamin Friedlander, Susan Gevirtz, Jess, Kevin Killian, Laura Moriarty, Michael Palmer, Claude Royet-Journoud, Leslie Scalapino, Aaron Shurin, David Levi Strauss, Amy Trachtenberg, Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop, and Ben Watkins. Box 4, Folder 6 23 Sandy Gallery 2011 Box 4, Folder 7-8 Adams, Marina