Elisavietta Ritchie

Elisavietta Ritchie (June 29, 1932-January 13, 2025)

Elisavietta Artamonoff Ritchie Farnsworth, well-known and loved, prolific American writer, poet, teacher, editor, essayist, and translator passed away on January 13th, 2025 in Solomons, Maryland.

Born on June 29, 1932, in Kansas City, Missouri, as Elisavietta Yurievna Artamonoff, she was renowned for her literary contributions that spanned a variety of themes including language, culture, nature and the human experience.

She was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris, Cornell University, University of California at Berkeley, Georgetown University, and American University in Washington DC.

Formerly married to Lyell H. Ritchie, she is survived by three children (Lyell Kirk Ritchie, Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, Alexander George Ritchie), six grandchildren, and a great grandchild. Her husband Clyde H. Farnsworth, a prominent journalist, lives in Southern Maryland.

Her friends and a wide circle of readers will continue to be inspired by her memory and seek to understand the world in all its complexity and beauty through her enduring works. Elisavietta Ritchie's writing was deeply influenced by her upbringing in
Europe, Asia, and the United States, as well as her profound connection to the Southern Maryland landscape on the shores of the Patuxent River.

She spent much of her life in Washington DC and Southern Maryland, where she is remembered for her deep engagement with the interwoven narratives and histories of the many and varied people she met and helped throughout her life. She maintained an open spirit, a welcome table and an eagerness to dive deep into discussions of literature, art, music and the news of the day.

For over sixty years, Lisa has encouraged writers in both Washington DC and Southern Maryland to develop and publish books of memoir, poetry, fiction and non-fiction. She has led discussion groups for poetry, memoir and fiction writers, and many writers young and old have benefited from her sharp eyes and keen editing skills. Many of these years she spent involved with the Washington Writers' Publishing House and as the founder of the Wineberry Press. She led seminars at her Macomb Street house and then later at the Calvert County Library, and at her waterfront Southern Maryland estate, "Jack Bay."

A prolific writer, her own work has appeared in publications as diverse as The New York Times, The New York Quarterly, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and those of the Poetry Society of America, and many other literary and general periodicals and anthologies in the US and abroad. She has published over 20 poetry volumes and translated the works of Russian, French, Brazilian, and Yugoslav poets.

Her poetry is known for its lyrical grace and often earthy and well targeted reflection on time, place, and human relationships.

Elisavietta Ritchie's work spans many genres, from poetry and short stories to essays and translations. She is best known for her poetry collections, including Tightening the Circle Over Eel Country, which was highly praised for its nuanced engagement with both the natural world and human emotional landscapes. The collection often touches on the theme of interconnection-both in terms of the environment and the human experience-and is known for the way it entwines the personal and the universal.

The phrase "Eel Country" evokes the Chesapeake Bay region, where she lived. And the metaphorical eels, as elusive, slippery creatures, become symbols for the mysteries of the natural world and the depths of the human soul. The poems in Tightening the Circle Over Eel Country often deal with survival, adaptation, and the search for meaning in a changing environment.

"Sorting Laundry" is one of her standout poems where she employs the mundane act of sorting laundry as a metaphor for life, love, memory, and the process of arranging or making sense of the world. The simple task of separating dark from light, fabric from fabric, becomes a powerful meditation on the complexity of human existence and relationships. Her poems often offer reflections on intimacy, history, and the act of trying to make sense of the fragments of our lives.

Elisavietta Ritchie is a winner of the Poetry Society of America's William Marion Reedy Prize, the Conrad Aiken Prize from the Georgia Poetry Society, and other awards. She has recorded her work at the Library of Congress and given poetry readings in the US and abroad, including Canada and Australia.

Her death in 2025 marks the end of a significant chapter in American poetry. Her influence endures in the many works she leaves behind, including Tightening the Circle Over Eel Country, The Dolphin's Arc, Flying Time, In Haste I Write You This Note, and Babushka's Beads (about her Russian grandmother) which remain touchstones for those who appreciate the depth and richness of her writing.

A Celebration of Life will be held on June 28th, 2025, on the occasion of what would have been her 93rd birthday at her former lovely farmhouse. Her ashes will be scattered in the marshlands at Jack Bay, with chittering bald eagles and ospreys soaring overhead, cormorants just beyond the compost, a couple of real toads, foxes full of cat food hiding just beyond sight and cardinals fluttering in to join the party.