12 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
sonnets.. .”); comments by poets demonstrate a range of attitudes toward the
relationship between form and content.
Adrienne Rich, Poetry and Commitment, afterword by Mark Doty (New York:
Norton, 2007).
Presents a provocative discussion of the poet’s political responsibility.
PEOPLE OF I NTEREST
Meena Alexander (1951– )
Poet and fiction writer born in India as Mary Elizabeth Alexander and raised
there and in Sudan. Her first books of poems were printed in Arabic translation
when she was still a teenager. She has written The Bird ’s Bright Ring (1976),
Without Place (1977), Stone Roots (1980), Fault Lines: A Memoir (1993), Manhat-
tan Music (1997), and Raw Silk (2004).
Aga Shahid Ali (1949–2001)
Poet whose works include Bone-Sculpture (1972), A Walk through the Yellow Pages
(1987), The Beloved Witness: Selected Poems (1992), Rooms Are Never Finished
(2002), and Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals (2003).
Paul Auster (1947– )
Writer of fiction, poetry, translations, and screenplays. Among his works are
The New York Trilogy (1987), Disappearances: Selected Poems (1988), The Music of
Chance (1990), Smoke (1995), and Collected Poems (2007).
John Berryman (1914–1972)
Poet associated with the confessional school. His collection 77 Dream Songs
(1964) received the Pulitzer Prize in 1965. His other works include The Dispos-
sessed (1948), His Thoughts Made Pockets and The Plane Buckt (1958), Berryman’s
Sonnets (1967), Homage to Mistress Bradstreet and Other Poems (1968), Delusions,
Etc. (1972), Henry’s Fate and Other Poems (1977), and Collected Poems 1937–1971
(1989).
Lorna Dee Cervantes (1954 – )
Chicana poet who received the American Book Award for Emplumada (1981),
a collection of bilingual free verse. She is also the author of From the Cables
of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger (1991) and DRIVE: The First Quartet
(2006).
Billy Collins (1941– )
Poet who has served two terms as poet laureate of the United States and was
described by The New York Times in 1999 as “the most popular poet in America.”
His poetry has been collected in Pokerface (1977), Video Poems (1980), The Apple
That Astonished Paris (1988), Questions about Angels (1991), The Art of Drowning
(1995), Picnic, Lightning (1998), Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected
Poems (2001), Nine Horses (2002), The Trouble with Poetry (2005), She Was Just