Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Juana was a voracious reader in her early childhood, hiding in the hacienda chapel to read her grandfather's books from the adjoining library. She composed her first poem when she was eight years old.
Stéphane Mallarmé
In the 1880s, Mallarmé was at the center of a group of French writers including Andre Gide, Paul Valéry and Marcel Proust that he referred to as "The Decadents."
Thomas Merton
Merton published nearly 50 books in his lifetime. Inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins' conversion to Catholicism and the priesthood, Merton was baptized in 1938, and began studying the catechism of the Catholic church.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Now considered the "Father of English literature," Chaucer held several positions early in his life, serving as a noblewoman's page, a courtier, a diplomat, a civil servant, and a collector of scrap metal.
Petrarch
A celebrity throughout Europe, Petrarch travelled widely for pleasure and is sometimes called "the first tourist." Known for his work reviving interest in classical literature, Petrarch is also considered the "father of Humanism."
Rachel Wetzsteon
In a New York Times feature article about the poet, her work is described as "hard-edged yet sinuous, rich with feeling yet unsentimental." She recently passed away on December 25, 2009.
Marie Howe
Author of three collections of poetry, Howe is also the editor of an anthology of American writing from the AIDS pandemic. She lives in New York City and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Columbia University.
Leslie Scalapino
Both as a poet and publisher, Scalapino is a renowned promoter of experimental verse, often working in collaboration with other poets. Despite ties to many language poets, she is both separate and vital to that school of thought.
Philip Appleman
Born in Indiana in 1926, Philip Appleman served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and in the Merchant Marine Cadet Corps after the war.
Kenneth Goldsmith
A key figure in "conceptual poetry," Goldsmith describes his aesthetic as "a poetics of the moment, fusing the avant-garde impulses of the last century with the technologies of the present."
Phillip Lopate
A poet and essayist, as Lopate puts it: "Though I am known today mostly as an essayist, occasionally as a fiction writer, for about fifteen years I wrote poetry."
Ira Sadoff
Born in 1945 to Russian immigrants, Sadoff has published numerous books and served as poetry editor of The Antioch Review as well as co-founder of The Seneca Review.
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