Lee Sharkey papers, 1945-2021, undated
Collection Scope and Content
The Lee Sharkey Papers are composed of manuscript material for published works, small press material, correspondence, personal journals, ephemera, memorabilia, and awards. The journals range from 1978-present, and contain poetry drafts, revisions, and notes. Her correspondence is between a multitude of people, including personal and professional contacts, as well as material related to publication and her time as an editor for Beloit Poetry Journal. Copies of publications have also been retained as part of the papers, including reading copies of her books and Beloit Poetry Journal volumes, with poems marked. A large number of newspapers and journals in which Lee Sharkey was published have been separated for housing in the Maine Women Writers Collection periodicals. Documentation of her coursework for her M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College includes manuscripts, her transcript, and study plans. Because Sharkey was a passionate activist, a series is dedicated to her activism with Women in Black, as well as other events such as the Iraq War, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the nuclear arms race. Sharkey’s small press work–her own South Solon Press and those run by others–show how connected she was in the writing and art communities in Maine and beyond. As Sharkey’s life was devoted to creative work and community, her papers reflect this focus.
Biographical/Historical Note
Lee Sharkey was born in 1945 in Providence, Rhode Island to Grace and Aaron Weiner. She completed her undergraduate degree at Brandeis University, and her graduate studies at Warren Wilson College. She was briefly married to Anthony Sharkey, with whom she had her son Jesse. She would later marry Al Bersbach in 1993.
Lee Sharkey was a well-published and accomplished author. She was co-editor of the Beloit Poetry Journal and co-founder of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She taught at the University of Maine at Farmington for many years, and founded the Women’s Studies program there. Sharkey also taught workshops and classes for the community, and was particularly proud of her work with the L.I.N.C. Club in Augusta, Maine. Sharkey was politically active for Jewish and anti-war efforts and organizations, including Women in Black in both Farmington and Portland.
Her published works include Farmwife, Daughters Without Mothers, To a Vanished World, A Darker, Sweeter String, Calendars of Fire, and Walking Backwards, as well as a multitude of chapbooks and individual poems in journals such as the Beloit Poetry Journal, the American Poetry Review, and more. She continued writing up to her death, and her final volume of poems, I Will Not Name It Except to Say, was published post-mortem by Tupelo Press in 2021. She was the recipient of the 2017 Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize, as well as several others from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She passed away on October 18, 2020 after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.