Lyn Coffin
Author of Anna Akhmatova: Poems
Works by Lyn Coffin
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1944
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Michigan (1965)
- Occupations
- poet
editor
translator
playwright
teacher - Organizations
- PEN Center USA
Phi Beta Kappa - Awards and honors
- First Prize, translation competition, The Academy of American Poets (judged by William Meredith)
Major and Minor Hopwoods, University of Michigan (Drama, Short Fiction, Long Fiction, Poetry, and Essay)
Grants from Michigan Council of the Arts
First prize, translation, Academy of American Poets (for the Orten Elegies) - Short biography
- Widely published and award-winning poet, fiction writer, playwright, nonfiction writer, editor, and translator. Author of seven books: two of poetry, one of poetry/fiction/drama, and four of translation. Moved to Seattle area from Michigan in January 2004. Launched Hugo House's Writers and Work series spring 2004. Revising a novel, and producing a commissioned play based on the fiction of Billy Lombardo, a hot young Chicago writer. Had a story published in Best American Short Stories 1979 and was a finalist in the Louisville Short Play competition. Recipient of an NEH grant and an International Poetry Review prize, second place winner for Porad Haiku Award, Baxter finalist, and one of three winners of the 2004 Jeanne Lohmann Poetry Award. Long time editor of The Michigan Quarterly Review. New WITS writer with SAL. http://www.poetswest.com/directory.ht...
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Not a fast read, for all the best possible reasons - each story is so self-contained compared with the others, that starting the next story when finishing one is jarring. Better to finish a story and take time before picking the book back up and starting the next.
In the best of these, Lyn Coffin has mastered the inferred narrative - she's not storytelling in her stories, but giving us the characters, feelings, and settings that led the narrative she isn't writing down to the place where we show more join it. It gives us enough of these stories' souls to learn the full story, to teach it to ourselves, and even extend it, all in a surprisingly short time in language allusive and elusive. The Gift Horse, The Psychiatrist's Second Wife, and The First Honeymoon each offer a novel in concentrated format, and in these and others along these lines, death, intimacy, and flat-out sexual tension play big roles in giving us what we need as readers to learn lives in short order.
Other stories in the collection could be accused of the 'too clever by half' stories, based on some surprise conceit, but for all that, I enjoyed them. When somebody clever shows off, and is good at it, the ride is fun: fireworks may not last, but damned if they're not pretty to look at in the moment. The Butterfly, which evolves from what seems like a prose poem to, maybe, something longer than flash fiction but not much, actually fooled me twice in that short span - and I enjoyed it all the more.
Ranging from uncomfortably, darkly beautiful to clever romp, the stories in this collection are worth the time to read, and worth time between each story before starting the next. show less
In the best of these, Lyn Coffin has mastered the inferred narrative - she's not storytelling in her stories, but giving us the characters, feelings, and settings that led the narrative she isn't writing down to the place where we show more join it. It gives us enough of these stories' souls to learn the full story, to teach it to ourselves, and even extend it, all in a surprisingly short time in language allusive and elusive. The Gift Horse, The Psychiatrist's Second Wife, and The First Honeymoon each offer a novel in concentrated format, and in these and others along these lines, death, intimacy, and flat-out sexual tension play big roles in giving us what we need as readers to learn lives in short order.
Other stories in the collection could be accused of the 'too clever by half' stories, based on some surprise conceit, but for all that, I enjoyed them. When somebody clever shows off, and is good at it, the ride is fun: fireworks may not last, but damned if they're not pretty to look at in the moment. The Butterfly, which evolves from what seems like a prose poem to, maybe, something longer than flash fiction but not much, actually fooled me twice in that short span - and I enjoyed it all the more.
Ranging from uncomfortably, darkly beautiful to clever romp, the stories in this collection are worth the time to read, and worth time between each story before starting the next. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.This is a short collection of stories, well under 200 pages, but it is no quick read. The stories need time to digest and some demand an immediate re-reading. Full of imaginative, witty ideas and startling wake-up-your-head sentences.
I felt like I was eavesdropping on the very intimate relationships of some exceptional characters, and some ordinary folks with buried quirkiness.
From 'Point of View Problems', a couple of examples I've highlighted for my book club, the first an idea from page show more 97: "She had converted late to sanity and, like most converts, was especially secure in her faith." Hah.
And an image from page 101: "Carolyn's palpable dislike of him slid off her face like snow off a roof." Wow. show less
I felt like I was eavesdropping on the very intimate relationships of some exceptional characters, and some ordinary folks with buried quirkiness.
From 'Point of View Problems', a couple of examples I've highlighted for my book club, the first an idea from page show more 97: "She had converted late to sanity and, like most converts, was especially secure in her faith." Hah.
And an image from page 101: "Carolyn's palpable dislike of him slid off her face like snow off a roof." Wow. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lyn Coffin's short story collection The First Honeymoon is a concise, well written book of seventeen short stories. I enjoyed most of the stories and found them to be both quirky and entertaining. I enjoyed the fact that though the book is a quick read the stories stay with you long after.
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.First, can I just say, unrelated to the content, but totally related to the content, the font? All sans-serif Arial style? That's a bit much on the eyes. We don't have to go all super serifed or ugly serifed or anything, but it looks cheap. I powered through, but I guess I like books in serifed font.
Now, to content that's actually content.
Ups and downs. Some stories I thought clever -- Fable for instance, with every sentence getting its own moral. Others were those what is real? what is show more imagined? style stories that simply don't turn my crank. Most stories were short and sweet, seventeen of them gently placed into 163 pages. The stories are airy, some no more than an idea let loose onto the page. That's fine. Sometimes wisps are all that's required. Most aren't about youth, the way so many stories and books and movies and plots assume that all we lose the ability to care about those who aren't under the age of thirty-one. People are in their fifties, in some of these stories, people are on their third marriages, someone bred peacocks (so we aren't devoid of quirk).
When I write stories, I feel they are like Coffin's: a tiny bit out of sync somehow that I'm not talented enough to articulate. Things are there, but it feels like a morsel without the ability to stretch into a meal. I like them though, for what little that's worth.
The First Honeymoon by Lyn Coffin went on sale March 29, 2015.
I received a copy free from Librarything in exchange for an honest review. show less
Now, to content that's actually content.
Ups and downs. Some stories I thought clever -- Fable for instance, with every sentence getting its own moral. Others were those what is real? what is show more imagined? style stories that simply don't turn my crank. Most stories were short and sweet, seventeen of them gently placed into 163 pages. The stories are airy, some no more than an idea let loose onto the page. That's fine. Sometimes wisps are all that's required. Most aren't about youth, the way so many stories and books and movies and plots assume that all we lose the ability to care about those who aren't under the age of thirty-one. People are in their fifties, in some of these stories, people are on their third marriages, someone bred peacocks (so we aren't devoid of quirk).
When I write stories, I feel they are like Coffin's: a tiny bit out of sync somehow that I'm not talented enough to articulate. Things are there, but it feels like a morsel without the ability to stretch into a meal. I like them though, for what little that's worth.
The First Honeymoon by Lyn Coffin went on sale March 29, 2015.
I received a copy free from Librarything in exchange for an honest review. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lists
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 20
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 68
- Popularity
- #253,410
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 13
- ISBNs
- 17
