Born in 1929, Adrienne Rich is one of the foremost poets and essayists of our time. The author of nearly twenty volumes of poetry, she is the recipient of virtually every major award for poetry, including the Bollingen Prize, Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, and National Book Award.
Her career began in 1951 when her first volume, A Change of World, was selected by W.H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Her career gained momentum as the feminist movement did, and Rich emerged as one of its most profound proponents and preeminent theorists.
During the 1980s, Rich broadened her scope to address a wide swath of political and societal issues. To find “resemblance in difference,” she writes, is “the core of metaphor, that which lives close to the core of poetry itself, the only hope for a humane civil life.” From the personal to the political, her poetry has been lauded as elegant, intelligent, and essential. Rich’s most recent collections include The School Among the Ruins: Poems 2000-2004 (2004) and Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations (2001). She lives in northern California.