Terese Svoboda is an American poet, novelist, memoirist, short story writer, librettist, translator, biographer, critic and videomaker.
Svoboda is the author of nine books of poetry, eight novels, three collections of short fiction, a biography, two memoirs and a book of translations from the Nuer.
She graduated from Columbia University School of the Arts. She was Distinguished Writer in Residence at University of Hawaii. and McGee Visiting professor of writing at Davidson College. Wichita State Distinguished Writer in Residence, University of Miami, Columbia University School of the Arts. Atlantic Center for the Arts Pabst Endowed Chair,
The opera Wet, for which she wrote the libretto, premiered at RedCat at L.A. Disney Hall in 2005. Her fourteen works in video have won numerous awards and are distributed worldwide. In writing about her work, reviewers have noted her frequent use of humor to address dire subjects, her interest in fabulism, and her lyrical use of language, especially as a poet writing prose.
An ardent unconventional feminist, she often writes about women in the Midwest in a way that has been termed "exotic, sophisticated, and heartbreaking." Her travels for the Smithsonian's Anthropology Film Archive to the South Pacific and the South Sudan provide additional settings. Postwar Japan is the location for her memoir about executions of U.S. servicemen by U.S. authorities.
Her work has appeared in AGNI, Granta, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, The New York Times, Narrative, Slate, Paris Review. The New York Post described her memoir, Black Glasses Like Clark Kent as "astounding"; The Washington Post regarded her biography Anything That Burns You as "magisterial."
After translating the songs of the Nuer people of the South Sudan on a PEN/Columbia Fellowship, she founded a scholarship for Nuer high school students in Nebraska. She was consulting producer for "The Quilted Conscience," a PBS documentary on South Sudanese girls learning to quilt with Nebraskan women.
Hailed as one of âÂÂour best writersâ byàKaren Russell, her fiction has been likened toàLauren Groff, Helen DeWitt, George Saunders, and Amy Hempel. Her career was discussed at theà'LILAC: Laboratoire interuniversitaire de littérature américaine contemporaine' at the Sorbonne University. Her second memoir,àHitler and My Mother-in-Law,àreceived aàâÂÂPublishers WeeklyâÂÂàstar.àRoxy and Coco, her most recent novel and first speculative, andàThe Long Swim,àher third story collection, were praised in a full page of theàNew York Times Book Review.ÃÂ
Electric Litàsaid ofà'Dog on Fire'àthat it was âÂÂa richly imagined novel from a writer at the top of her form.â Praised by Karen Russell inàEsquire,àGreat American Desertàwas also lauded byàtheàLos Angeles Review of Books. Emily St. John Mandel wrote onàThe MillionsàthatàPirate Talk and Mermaladeàwas "a strange and nastily beautiful bookâ and thatàTin Godàis the work of "a true original."àBohemian Girl was one of 10 Best Westerns of 2012, according to Booklist.àCannibal,àher first novel,àwas deemed âÂÂa womanâÂÂsàHeart of DarknessàinàVogue. Cleaned the CrocodileâÂÂs Teeth, Translation of Nuer Songàwas chosen for theàNew York TimesàWriterâÂÂs Choice column, and praised by Anthroposàwith "She approaches the Nuer not as an alien, exotic society but as people whose artistic expression may hold meaning and pleasure for any reader."ÃÂ
Brooklyn Railàsaid of her Selected Poems,àWhen the Next Big War Blows Down the Valley:àâÂÂTerese Svoboda is one of few contemporary American writers who possesses a global consciousness.â Her book of poetry,àTheatrix: Poetry Playsàwas cited byàCompulsive Readeràas âÂÂwitty, irreverent, provocative,â and Virginia Konchan wrote thatàâÂÂTheatrix: Poetry Playsàis a tour de force collection that explodes our notion of the fourth wall.âÂÂ
Entropy included it in 'Best of 2020-2021 Poetry Books'.àCompulsive Readeràalso quotesàThe Bloomsbury ReviewâÂÂsàcomment that Svoboda is âÂÂone of those writers you would be tempted to read regardless of the setting or the period or the plot or even the genre.âÂÂàIn addition to the libretto for WET, many of her poems have been set to music, including 'Orlando' as âÂÂgun gun gunâ by Errolyn Wallen performed at the Crypt on the Green in London and recorded on the Hermes Experiment Album Here We Are. Three of her books have been reissued.
Cary Nelson, editor of theàAnthology of American Poetry,àsaid of her biographyàAnything That Burns You: A Portrait of Lola Ridge, Radical Poet:àâÂÂNo one who cares about American culture will want to miss this book.â Svoboda also provided the afterword for Willa Cather'sàMy Antoniaà(Signet Classics, 2014); and the introduction toàGenevieve Taggard To Test the Joy: Selected Poems and Proseà(Boiler House Press, 2023). She is a board member of Women Writing WomenâÂÂs Lives.
Svoboda's video work include exhibition in 'Exchange and Evolution' as part of the Getty's Pacific Standard Time exhibition at RedCat, Ars Electronica, PBS, MoMA, WNYC, L.A.C.E., Lifestyle TV, Berlin Videofest, Art Institute of Chicago, CalArts, AFI, Long Beach Museum of Art, New American Makers, Athens Film Festival, Ohio Film Festival, American Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival (Director's Choice), L.A. Freewaves, Pacific Film Archives, Columbus Film Festival, and Worldwide Video Festival. She was awarded a Jerome Foundation Award in Film and Video and an early Independent Television Service (ITVS) grant from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting for her work in media. She also co-curated 'Between Word and Image' for the Museum of Modern Art and Poets House, an exhibition that traveled to Banff and the Northwest Film Center. Her work is distributed by Vtape.