Helene Cardona

HÉLÈNE CARDONA is a poet, literary translator, and actor, author of Life in Suspension (Salmon Poetry), winner of the 2020 Independent Press Award, 2017 International Book Award, 2017 Best Book Award in Poetry, Pinnacle Best Bilingual Book Award, and Readers' Favorite Book Award, Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry & Julie Suk Award Finalist; Dreaming My Animal Selves (Salmon Poetry), winner of the Best Book Award, Pinnacle Best Bilingual Book Award, and Readers' Favorite Book Award, International Book & Julie Suk Award Finalist; Birnam Wood (José Manuel Cardona, Salmon Poetry), winner of the 2022 Independent Press Award, 2019 Best Book Award, 2019 Readers’ Favorite Award Gold Medal, Pinnacle Book Best Bilingual Award, Julie Suk Honor, 2019 Eric Hoffer Book Award & 2019 International Poetry Book Award Finalist; Beyond Elsewhere (Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac, White Pine Press), Hemingway Grant winner; Ce que nous portons (Dorianne Laux, Éditions du Cygne 2014); and The Astonished Universe (Red Hen Press).
She holds an MA in American Literature from the Sorbonne, taught at Hamilton College & Loyola Marymount University, and received fellowships from the Goethe-Institut & Universidad Internacional de Andalucía.
She translated Whitman's War Writings for The Iowa International Program's WhitmanWeb.
She co-edits Levure Littéraire.
Hélène had roles in Chocolat, Star Trek Discovery, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Muppets Most Wanted, World War Z, Mumford, and Happy Feet 2. For Serendipity, she co-wrote with Peter Chelsom and Alan Silvestri the song Lucienne, which she also sang.
She also writes children stories and co-wrote with John FitzGerald the screenplay Primate, based on his novel.
Other translations include the Lawrence Bridges film Muse of Fire for the NEA, the poetry of her father José Manuel Cardona, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Aloysius Bertrand, René Depestre, Ernest Pépin, Jacques Crickillon, and Jean-Claude Renard.
Born in Paris and raised all over Europe, she has lived in Switzerland, France, England, Wales, Monaco, Germany, Spain and the United States.