SCHWARTZ, Ruth L. 1962- (Judith Joyce)

PERSONAL:

Born February 22, 1962, in Geneva, NY; daughter of George Schwartz (a physician and author) and Loretta Schwartz Nobel (an author). Education: University of Michigan, M.F.A., 1985; Wesleyan University, B.A., 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Home—6035 Majestic Avenue, Oakland, CA 94605. E-mail—Ruthpoet@aol.com.

CAREER:

San Mateo County AIDS Program, San Mateo, CA, program coordinator, 1992-94; Northern California Cancer Center Cancer Information Service, Union City, CA, cancer information specialist, 1994-96; Susan Ireland's Resume Service, Oakland, CA, resume writer, 1996-98; Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, assistant professor, 1998-2000; California State University—Fresno, assistant professor, 2000—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Associated Writing Programs competition winner, 1994, for Accordion Breathing and Dancing; Pablo Neruda Prize, Nimrod magazine, 1999; Anhinga Press Prize in Poetry, 2000, for Singular Bodies, and 2001, for Edgewater.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Accordion Breathing and Dancing, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1996.

Singular Bodies, Anhinga Press (Tallahassee, FL), 2001.

Edgewater, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

Some works published under pseudonmym Judith Joyce.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ruth L. Schwartz told CA: "The theme of the body and its transformations—through eros, illness, disability, and death—figures prominently in my work. My ten years in AIDS and cancer education, and my close personal experience with kidney failure and transplantation, have profoundly informed my writing; so has my visceral awareness of the violence and alienation so prevalent in urban American life at the close of the twentieth century. Still, my belief in joy—and in the redemptive capacities of sexuality and love—is at the core of my poetry."