Helen Vendler

Helen Vendler
Born	Helen Hennessy (1933-04-30)April 30, 1933 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	April 23, 2024(2024-04-23) (aged 90) Laguna Niguel, California, U.S.
Occupation	Professor
Spouse	Zeno Vendler ​ ​ (m. 1960; div. 1963)​
Children	1
Awards	Fulbright Scholarship, 1954 James Russell Lowell Prize of the Modern Language Association (MLA), 1969 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 1970 Metcalf Cup & Prize, Boston University, 1975 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, 1980 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism, Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, 1996 Charles Homer Haskins Lecture, American Council of Learned Societies, 2001 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2004 Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2013 Gold Medal for Belles Lettres and Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2023
Academic background
Alma mater	Emmanuel College (AB) Harvard University (PhD)
Academic work
Discipline	English
Sub-discipline	Poetics
Institutions	Harvard University Boston University Cornell University Swarthmore College Smith College
Main interests	Emily Dickinson, George Herbert, John Keats, Seamus Heaney, Wallace Stevens, W. B. Yeats, William Shakespeare

Helen Vendler (née Hennessy; April 30, 1933 – April 23, 2024) was an American academic, writer and literary critic. She was a professor of English language and history at Boston University, Cornell, Harvard, and other universities. Her academic focus was critical analysis of poetry and she studied poets from Shakespeare and George Herbert to modern poets such as Wallace Stevens and Seamus Heaney. Her technique was close reading, which she described as "reading from the point of view of a writer".^[1]

Vendler reviewed poetry regularly for periodicals including The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. She was also a regular judge for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize and so was influential in determining writers' reputation and success.^[1]