By Nava Atlas | On August 28, 2020 | Updated November 1, 2024 | Comments (3)
Mary Oliver (September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019) was an American poet whose work reflects a deeply rooted harmony with the natural world. No Voyage and Other Poems, her first collection, was published in 1963. Since then, books and numerous collections of her poems were published.
Born in Maple Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Mary’s parents were Edward and Helen Oliver. Her father worked in the Cleveland public school system as an athletic coach and social studies teacher. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 19, 2020 | Updated August 28, 2022 | Comments (0)
Johanna Spyri (June 12, 1827 – July 7, 1901) born Johanna Louise Heusser, was a Swiss author best known for her first and most successful book, the 1881 children’s novel Heidi.
Born in rural Hirzel, not far from Zurich, she grew up in a happy, cultured home in a literary environment. Her mother, Meta Huesser, was a popular songwriter and poet. Her father was a well-known and greatly beloved physician in Zurich. The Huessers opened their home to the intellectual and literary figures of that time and place.
In 1852, when Johanna was 25, she married a former schoolmate, Bernhard Spyri, who became an attorney. While the couple was living in Zurich, she began to tell stories to their son to amuse him, and her husband encouraged her to set them to paper. Read More→
By Elodie Barnes | On June 22, 2020 | Updated March 15, 2025 | Comments (0)
Sylvia Townsend Warner (December 6, 1893 – May 1, 1978) was an English novelist, poet, and musicologist. Best known for her novels Lolly Willowes and The Corner That Held Them, she was also a prolific writer of short stories and contributed to The New Yorker for over forty years.
Despite a revival of her work in the 1970s, led by feminist publisher Virago Press, she is still an under-appreciated figure in literature and is probably just as well known for her long-term relationship with Valentine Ackland. Read More→
By Norma Brickner | On May 31, 2020 | Updated March 5, 2024 | Comments (0)
Lucille Clifton (June 26, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was a prolific American poet, teacher, and children’s book author.
Clifton’s work focused on issues of race, family affairs, and gender through the lens of the Black American experience. She also created works about women’s issues, everyday family struggles, and health. Her work has been described as feminist.
Clifton’s poetry was first published by Langston Hughes, who included it in his impactful anthology, The Poetry of the Negro (1746-1970). Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On May 7, 2020 | Updated June 25, 2026 | Comments (0)
Margaret Walker (July 15, 1915 – November 30, 1998) was an American poet and novelist. Though she’s recognized today as one of the foremost Black American female writers of her generation, she deserves greater appreciation.
In addition to her acclaimed novel, Jubilee (1966), her poetry is collected into several volumes. Walker participated in the literary movement known as the Chicago Black Renaissance, and was a longtime friend of novelist and poet Richard Wright.
Walker was a university professor from the 1940s through the 1970s, and held positions at colleges in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Mississippi. She received six honorary degrees and was inducted into the African American Literary Hall of Fame in October 1998. Read More→
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