Constance Hunting (1925 - 2006)

Genre: Poetry

Constance Hunting was born in Providence, RI, and lived in Orono from 1968 until her death. She was a classical pianist, a poet and a promoter of other Maine writers, informally and through her Puckerbrush Review literary magazine (established 1978) and Puckerbrush Press publishing company (est. 1971). She also taught English literature and creative writing at the University of Maine (Orono) and was a member of the National Poetry Foundation board. She received her B.A. from Brown University in 1947, was at Duke University from 1950-53, and then Purdue University from 1953-68. Her husband, Robert, was chair of the English department at the Univ. of Maine for eight years before his death. There's more about her in a UMaine Today Nov-Dec. 2001 profile. Her obituary is available online.

Hunting edited two books about May Sarton, May Sarton, Woman and Poet (1982) and A Celebration for May Sarton: Essays and Speeches from the National Conference "May Sarton at 80" (1994). She also co-edited (with Lee Skarkey) two books of Maine writing, New Maine Writing (1977) and New Maine Writing: Number Two (1979); co-edited (with Virgil Bisset) In a Dark Time: An Anthology of Poetry of Nuclear Concern (1983); and in 1997 came out with The Experience of Art: Selected Essays and Interviews, which has articles on Virginia Chase Perkins and Philip Booth.

Hunting's own books and chapbooks of poetry are as follows: After the Stravinsky Concert and Other Poems (1969), Cimmerian and Other Poems (1972), Beyond the Summerhouse: A Narrative Poem (1976), Nightwalk and Other Poems (1980), Dream Cities (1982), Collected Poems, 1969-1982 (1983), A Day at the Shore: A Poem (1983), Between the Worlds: Poems 1983-1988 (1989), Hawkedon (1990), The Myth of Horizon (1991), At Rochebonne: A Poem (1994), The Shape of Memory (1998), Natural Things: Collected Poems 1969-1998 (1999), An Amazement (2002), and The Sky Flower (2005).


Last Update: 07/30/2007

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