Yvonne Tamara Bitty Mammon (1957-04-08) 8 April 1957 (age 67) Finchley, London, England
Died
(2024-04-15)15 April 2024
Occupation
Poet, translator, writer, barrister
Nationality
British
Notable works
Boukhara, After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin, Selected Poems and Translations, her contribution to The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, Honoured, Hanisu Yi, Jam & Jerusalem.
Notable awards
Poetry Business Prizewinner, Buxton Prizewinner, British Poetry Book Society Recommended Translator and Commended Poet
Yvonne Green[1] (8 April 1957 – 16 April 2024) was an English poet, translator, writer and barrister.
Life and career
Green, who lived in Hendon and Herzliya,[2] was born in Finchley, north London on 8 April 1957. She attended the Henrietta Barnett School and then went on to study law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Green was called to the Bar in New York and England and first practised in New York at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and the Legal Aid Society and later in London in the Inner Temple but retired as a commercial barrister in 1999 so she could publish the poetry that she had always written.[3][4][5] She was of Bukharan Jewish heritage.[6]
Her first pamphlet, Boukhara, was published in 2007 and won The Poetry Business 2007 Book & Pamphlet Competition.[7] Her first full-length collection, The Assay was published in 2010 and as a result of an award from Celia Atkin and Lord Gavron was translated into Hebrew in 2013, under the title HaNisuyi and published in Israel by Am Oved. Honoured, her most recent work has "telling detail and great emotional power" according to Alan Brownjohn. In Honoured, Green juxtaposes the idealised vision of Israel with the Zionist narrative of the diaspora.[8] Green was Poet-in-Residence to Spiro's Ark from 2000 to 2003, Norwood Ravenswood in 2006, Casa Shalom from 2007 to 2008, Jewish Woman's Aid from 2007 to 2009 and from 2013, to Baroness Scotland of Asthall's Global Foundation To End Domestic Violence (EDV GF).
After the November 2015 Paris attacks Green read translations from Hebrew as well as some of her own work at a Poetry and Music of the Middle East event in St Albans.[9] On 6 June 2016 Green's poem, "The Farhud: Baghdad's Shabu'ot 1st and 2nd June 1941", was read in the Israeli Knesset to commemorate the Farhud.[10] On 3 July 2017 Green read out Bejan Matur's poems at "The Kurdish Sisterhood" event organised by the Exiled Lit Cafe at the Poetry Café.[11] She convened two monthly groups, one at Hendon Library called "Wall of Words" and the second at JW3, Europe's largest Jewish cultural centre, called "Taking the Temperature".[12][13] She also regularly gave readings and talks on translating Semyon Lipkin.
Awards and honours
2007 The Poetry Business' Book & Pamphlet Prizewinner for Boukhara
Winter 2011 Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation Award for After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin
2012 Buxton prize Commendation for Welcome to Britain
Ghetto Blaster, That I May Know You (The North) 2008 and (Statement for the Prosecution Anthology) 2005 ISBN1-904662-03-X
War Poem, Silent Blessing, How To Beat Your Wife (Cardinal Points) Volume 3 2011
That Kind of War, Truce (Peace One Day Global Truce Publication) Autumn 2012
Joker (Miracle) February 2014
Jews (The North) Autumn 2014
Year (Gold Dust) 2014
All Artist (Brittle Star) Issue 34 2014
Jews, Our Food, My Fathers Room (And Other Poems) January 2015
The Poetry of Propaganda (London Grip New Poetry) Spring 2015
Dumb (Jewish Quarterly) Spring 2015
The Poetry of Propaganda (Jewish Renaissance Magazine) April 2015 page 51
The Silk Routes, 9/6/20 & A Conversation With Ruth Padel (Issue 66 The North) August 2021
Heritage Sites (Leeds Poetry Festival Prize Anthology) July 2022
Farouk (London Magazine) December 2022
Your Name’s Never Mentioned (Poetry Scotland Issue 105) March 2023
Believe Me (Acumen Magazine Issue 106) May 2023
Alexandria, Tetrissed, The Time was Brutal and Kaleidoscope (The North Issue 69) August 2023
The Sound and Vision of a Noiseless Poet (Acumen Magazine Issue 109) May 2024
Translated publications
Three of her poems were published in translation in the Summer 2006 edition of Dimui (Beit Moreshet B'Yerushalayim), Out of the Ordinary, Bibi and Souriya.
A grant from Celia Atkin and Lord Gavron enabled Green's "The Assay" to be translated into Hebrew. They were then published in Israel by Am Oved under the title HaNisuyi (הניסוי) ISBN978-965-13-2356-0[14]
Writings
A conversation with Louise Glück
Louise Glück gave a rare interview to Green which was published in PN Review 196 in December 2010.[15]
Reviews
Green has reviewed the works of other poets. She has reviewed Daniel Weissbort in the April/May 2007 edition of the London Magazine.[16]
Gaza reporting
In 2008 Green wrote "Reflections on a Visit to Shderot" that appeared on the Freedom in a Puritan Age website.[17] Five days after Operation Cast Lead, Green entered the Gaza Strip to see the situation for herself after hearing the media reports throughout the war. She then wrote a number of pieces from her experience. She wrote a report entitled "A Verbatim Note on a Visit to Gaza". Green also wrote an op-ed article entitled "Puzzled in Gaza"[18] that featured in The Jerusalem Post[19] and the Boston Globe where she stated, "What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas's infrastructure…most of Gaza…was visibly intact." Green also had was also interviewed by The Jewish Chronicle[20] and Bridges for Peace about her experiences.
Taking The Temperature is a monthly group at JW3 that Green organises. She was in conversation there with Maureen Kendler on 10 February 2015 and on 23 March 2015 with Sean O'Brien. The group has an audience of readers and writers including Alan Brownjohn, Elaine Feinstein, Deborah Sacks and June Lausch.[21]
Reading at the Pushkin House Russian Poetry Week[22]
2016 Reading of her poem "The Farhud: Baghdad's Shabu'ot 1st and 2nd June 1941" which was commissioned by Harif to mark the 75th anniversary of The Farhud[32][33]
2016 Featured poet at the Poetry Salon in The Master's House in Ledbury[34]
See also
Volume 22 Part 1 Translation and Literature Spring 2013 (Article by Donald Rayfield)
Poetry Review (Volume 101:1 Spring 2011)
PBS Bulletin (Winter 2011) (Review of After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin)