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Norma Cole collection

 Collection
Identifier: PCMS-0087

Scope and Contents

The Norma Cole collection, 1987-2014, contains journals, notebooks, photographic material, and ephemera related to her poetry and visual art, as well as a significant amount of material related to her teaching, primarily at University of San Francisco and San Francisco State University.

Dates

  • 1979-2014

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material is in English.

Terms of Access and Use

The Norma Cole collection, 1987-2014, is open for research.

Restrictions

Access to portions of this collection is RESTRICTED due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Restrictions

This collection has been minimally processed. Privacy protected information (including but not limited to certain educational, medical, financial, criminal, attorney-client, and/or personnel records) may be revealed during use of archival collections, particularly in collections that are unprocessed or have been minimally processed. Researchers agree to make no notes or other recordation of privacy protected information if found within the archival collections, and further agree not to publish, publicize, or disclose such information to any other party for any purpose if found within the archival collections.

Copyright

Copyright of papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Poetry Collection before requesting photocopies and/or publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Once permission is obtained, most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Historical Note

Norma Cole is a poet, translator, visual artist, and educator. Born in Toronto, Canada, she learned French at an early age and received her B.A. in Modern Languages and Literature and M.A. in French Language and Literature from the University of Toronto. She lived near Nice for several years, forming relationships with several French writers, and began to work with visual art. Following a return to Toronto to complete a degree in early childhood education, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. While taking classes at New College of California, she met Robert Duncan and Jess and a group of poets including Michael Palmer, Laura Moriarty, and Aaron Shurin. During this time she also traveled to France where she met Claude Royet-Journoud and Emmanuel Hocquard, whose work she translated into English.



Her other translation works include Danielle Collobert’s It, Then (1989), Anne Portugal’s Nude (2001), and Fouad Gabriel Naffah’s The Spirit God and the Properities Of Nitrogen (2004). She also edited and translated Crosscut Universe: Writing on Writing from France (2000), an anthology of poetry and poetics by contemporary French writers.



Cole’s books of poetry include Win These Posters and Other Unrelated Prizes Inside (Omnidawn, 2012), Natural Light (2009), Where Shadows Will: Selected Poems 1988-2008 (2009), Spinoza in Her Youth (2002), The Vulgar Tongue (2000), and Desire and Its Double (1998). Her experimental work SCOUT (Krupskaya, 2005), incorporated both text and image. From 2004 to 2006, Cole was the lead artist for Collective Memory, an installation, performance, and publication for “Poetry and its Arts: Bay Area Interactions 1954-2004” commissioned by the California Historical Society in San Francisco, California. The artists’ book Collective Memory was published by Granary Books in 2006.



Cole’s various awards include a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Award, Gertrude Stein Awards, the Robert D. Richardson Non-Fiction Award, and awards from the Fund for Poetry.



Cole has held adjunct and visiting professorships and residencies at over two dozen institutions, including the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the Naropa Institute, the University of California, Berkeley, St. Mary’s College, Temple University, and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. She lives in San Francisco.

Extent

13 Linear Feet (19 boxes)

Abstract

Norma Cole is a poet, translator, visual artist, and educator. Born in Toronto, Canada, she learned French at an early age and received her B.A. in Modern Languages and Literature and M.A. in French Language and Literature from the University of Toronto. She has translated a number of French writers into English, and has published over 30 books and chapbooks of her own poetry, some of which incorporates her visual work. Cole has lived in San Francisco since the early 1970s and has held adjunct and visiting professorships and residencies at a number of institutions, including the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the Naropa Institute, the University of California, Berkeley, St. Mary’s College, Temple University, and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

The Norma Cole Collection, 1987-2014, contains journals, notebooks, photographic material, and ephemera related to her poetry and visual art, as well as a significant amount of material related to her teaching, primarily at University of San Francisco and San Francisco State University.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in three series:

  • Writing and Visual Work, 1987-2014
  • Teaching, 1993-2014
  • Correspondence and Work by Others, 1987-2014 (bulk 2014)
  • Acquisition Information

    Collection was donated by Norma Cole in 2014. File "Eight drawings" purchased in 1987; see file for details.

    Accruals and Additions

    No further accruals are expected.

    Related Materials

    Related materials are held at University of California San Diego Library Special Collections: Norma Cole Papers, 1940-2014 (bulk 1985-2014) (MSS 0766).

    Separated Materials

    Many books were removed and added to the Poetry Collection's monograph collection: Search "Norma Cole Collection" in the catalog for a list of these items.

    Processing Information

    Collection was processed by Marie Elia in 2017. Most materials were already well-organized and labeled, and the arrangement reflects this original order.

    Source

    Title
    Finding aid for the Norma Cole collection.
    Status
    Completed
    Author
    Finding aid prepared by Marie Elia.
    Date
    01 September 2017
    Description rules
    Describing Archives: A Content Standard
    Language of description
    English
    Script of description
    Latin
    Language of description note
    English

    Repository Details

    Part of the The Poetry Collection Repository

    Contact:
    420 Capen Hall
    Buffalo New York 14260-1674 US
    716-645-2917
    716-645-3714 (Fax)