Maya Pindyck (born 1978)[1] is an American poet, scholar, and visual artist. She is director of writing and a professor at Moore College of Art and Design.[2]
Pindyck grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, United States and Tel Aviv, Israel,[3] attending K-12 schools in both Boston and Tel Aviv.[4] She is Jewish, and was raised secular.[5] She earned her Bachelor of Arts in fine arts and philosophy from Connecticut College. She has an Master of Fine Arts in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, and a PhD in English education from Columbia University's Teacher's College.[6] Her chapbook Locket, Master earned her a fellowship from the Poetry Society of America.[7] She has shared that creating visual art is what first led her into poetry.[8]
She is a director of writing and a professor of liberal arts at Moore College of Art and Design.[2]
Her favorite writers include Sherman Alexie, Anne Carson, and Lucille Clifton.[4]
Pindyck has received several grants,[7] including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 2019.[6][9] She was awarded the 2021 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry.[6][9]
Her collection Friend Among Stones won New Rivers Press' Many Voices Project Award.[10]
Pindyck is the author of the following works:[9]
She has had poems published in Granta (Hebrew edition), Los Angeles Review, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Quarterly West, and Seneca Review.[9]
Pindyck is also a visual artist, and has exhibited her work in galleries in the United States and Germany.[1][9] She also created the cover art for Philadelphia-based Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's album Hysterical.[11]
I was raised in an intellectual, secular household; we only observed High Holidays, and loosely. Though my family is very much Jewish, we never identified as religious. My Jewish background is cultural and historical.
I set my left foot on the path of poetry while making visual art.
Indie pop band, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, released their newest article, “Hysterical.” Credit: Maya Pindyck