Mary Oliver (1935– )
Received the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for American Primitive (1983). A prolific poet,
since 2000 she has written and published The Leaf and the Cloud (2000), What Do
We Know (2002), Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (2003), Why I Wake
Early: New Poems (2004), Blue Iris: Poems and Essays (2004), Long Life: Essays and
Other Writings (2004), New and Selected Poems, Volume Two (2005), Thirst: Poems
(2006), Our World (2007), Red Bird (2008), and Evidence (2009).
Simon J. Ortiz (1941– )
Poet and member of the Acoma Pueblo tribe. He is the author of Going for the Rain
(1976), A Good Journey (1977), Fight Back: For the Sake of the People, for the Sake of
the Land (1980), From Sand Creek (1981), Fightin’: New and Collected Short Stories
(1983), The People Shall Continue (1988), and Out There Somewhere (2002).
Michael Palmer (1943– )
Poet often associated with the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school of poetry. Some of
his more significant works are Blake’s Newton (1972), The Circular Gates (1974),
Without Music (1977), Notes for Echo Lake (1981), First Figure (1984), Sun (1988),
At Passages (1996), The Lion Bridge: Selected Poems 1972–1995 (1998), The Prom-
ises of Glass (2000), Codes Appearing: Poems 1979–1988 (2001), and Company of
Moths (2005).
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
Poet and novelist often described as a confessional poet.The Collected Poems (1981)
won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982, making Plath the first poet to receive the award
posthumously. She is the author of The Colossus (1960), Ariel (1965), Crossing the
Water (1971), and Winter Trees (1972) and a novel, The Bell Jar (1963).
Alberto Ríos (1952– )
Poet whose works include Elk Heads on the Wall (1979), Sleeping on Fists (1981),
Whispering to Fool the Wind (1982), Five Indiscretions (1985), The Warrington
Poems (1989), The Lime Orchard Woman (1988), Teodoro Luna’s Two Kisses (1990),
The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body (2002), The Theater of Night (2006), and
The Dangerous Shirt (2009).
Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
Often classified as a confessional poet, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for
Live or Die (1966). Her other works include To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960),
All My Pretty Ones (1962), Selected Poems (1964), Love Poems (1969), Transforma-
tions (1971), The Book of Folly (1973), The Death Notebooks (1974), The Awful
Rowing toward God (1975), 45 Mercy Street (1976), Words for Dr. Y .: Uncollected
Poems (1978), and The Complete Poems (1981).
Cathy Song (1955– )
Poet whose first poetry collection, Picture Bride (1983), was selected for the Yale
Series of Younger Poets. Her other works are Frameless Windows, Squares of Light
(1988), School Figures (1994), The Land of Bliss (2001), and Cloud Moving Hands
(2007).