Diane di Prima
The Italian American poet and artist's “willingness to speak” about what was culturally unspeakable was a liberation.
T.S. Eliot
Remembering the famous modernist poet T.S. Eliot with his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
The Life of Forgotten Poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon
She was known as the "female Byron." So why doesn't anyone read L.E.L. anymore?
The Posthumous Mystique of Thomas Chatterton
He died young of suicide and became the quintessence of the tormented poet. But his death may have been an accident, and his greatest work, forgeries.
Ruth Page, the Ballerina Who Danced Poems
In the 1940s, American dancer Ruth Page combined poetry, performance, and personal reflection to create a new type of dance.
“Mad Meg,” the Poet-Duchess of 17th Century England
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, shocked the establishment by publishing poems and plays under her own name.
W. B. Yeats’ Live-in “Spirit Medium”
In the Victorian era, a different kind of ghostwriting became popular—largely because it allowed men to take all the credit.
The Poet Who Wanted to Be Eaten by Vultures
One day in 1971, the hard-drinking Beat poet Lew Welch walked into the woods of Nevada County and disappeared, possibly angling to be eaten by vultures.
What This 19th-Century Poet Knew About the Future
The Anthropocene requires a new history to explain how humans transform the planet. The work of poet John Clare is a good place to start.