Elaine Feinstein, a British poet, novelist and biographer whose writing was inspired by her Jewish heritage,  died Sept. 23 in London. She was 88.

Ms. Feinstein published more than a dozen poetry collections and 15 novels. She also translated the Russian poet Marine Tsvetaeva (1892-1941), whose work she found particularly inspiring, and which influenced her own.

She often explored the relationship between being Jewish and being English. Ever present with her was the knowledge that had her ancestors settled in Germany rather than England, her life might have been very different. “My Jewish upbringing was a source of strength,” she told The Guardian in 1988.