Alice Goodman


Alice Goodman
Born1958 (age 67–68)
OccupationLibrettist, priest
NationalityAmerican
Genrepoetry, opera
Notable worksNixon In China, The Death of Klinghoffer
Spouse
(m. 1987; died 2016)
Children1

Alice Goodman, Lady Hill (born 1958[1]) is an American poet and librettist. She is also an Anglican priest, working in England.[2]

Biography

Goodman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended and graduated from Breck School. She studied English and American literature at Harvard University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1980, and Girton College, Cambridge, graduting with a further BA in 1982.[3] During the 1980s she published poems in venues such as Poetry[4] and the London Review of Books.[5] She received her Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from the Boston University School of Theology in 1997.[3] She has written the libretti for two of the operas of John Adams (Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer) and the text of a cantata by Tarik O'Regan (A Letter of Rights).[6] Goodman resumed writing with John Adams on the opera Doctor Atomic, but withdrew from this project after a year.

She was raised as a Reform Jew, and converted to Christianity in 1989, as an adult.[7][8] From 2000 to 2001, she trained for ordination at Ripon College Cuddesdon.[3] She was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 2001 and as a priest in 2002.[3] In 2006, Alice Goodman took up the post of chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge,[9] and in 2011 became Rector of a group of parishes in Cambridgeshire including Fulbourn.[10]

Goodman married the noted English poet Geoffrey Hill in 1987. The couple has one daughter, Alberta.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Alice Goodman - National Portrait Gallery".
  2. ^ White (30 August 2005) p. E2
  3. ^ a b c d "Alice Abigail Goodman". Crockford's Clerical Directory (online ed.). Church House Publishing. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  4. ^ "The Chemical Blonde by Alice Goodman | Poetry Magazine". Poetry Magazine. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  5. ^ Goodman, Alice (3 December 1981). "Alice Goodman · Poem: 'As with the commander of an army so is it with the mistress of a house' · LRB 3 December 1981". London Review of Books. 03 (22). Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Celebrating Magna Carta in music". BBC. June 14, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  7. ^ May, Thomas (22 August 2017). "She Gave Words to Opera's Nixon (Published 2017)". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 January 2022. 1989
  8. ^ Berman, Paul (October 23, 2014). "Klinghoffer at the Met". Tablet. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  9. ^ Trinity College
  10. ^ "Fulbourn Village Guide". 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  11. ^ Mansfield (22 August 2005)