Poetry So Good It’ll Make You Want to Write Your Own

Dorianne Laux has taught me so much about brave and honest poetry. Her work reminds me that what I carry is worth voicing. -Amy Tingle

I'll never forget hearing Sharon read "Douche Bag Ode." In that moment, I learned the power of humor and hearing a poem read in the author's own voice. -Amy Tingle

Billy knows everything about everything. He can mine the simplicity of an avocado or the depths of love. -Amy Tingle

I copyedited all of Naomi's early collections at Simon & Schuster. Her skill as an editor is second only to the rhythm of her words. -Amy Tingle

Ellen Bass is fairly new to me, but so much of her work brings me to my knees. -Amy Tingle

The only thing I can tell you about Mary Oliver is that I want to be her when I grow up. -Amy Tingle

A razor-sharp, deeply compassionate writer who lived through some seriously hard times before dying, tragically, at the age of 40. I had the privilege of working with and learning from her during the fall semester of my senior year at Brandeis University, where she was a visiting professor. -Maya Stein

Alison's poems carry the beautiful complexities and incongruities of living - her writing is wickedly funny and wildly compassionate. -Maya Stein

Deena has been my writing mentor for years, the voice in my head whether I'm approaching a new piece of writing or trying to revise an older one. Her wisdom, clarity, and truth-telling are nuggets of pure gold. -Maya Stein

Thylias is a tiny woman with a huge presence. She left me a great gift in one of my college seminars when she said that each poem she hasn't identified a title for she gives the placeholder name "Pears on a Window Sill." -Maya Stein

Mary was my college thesis advisor (do you see a trend here?) with deep pockets of knowledge, intuition, and unwavering vision about what makes good writing better. She pushed me hard in all the right places. -Maya Stein

Tony is a master craftsman when it comes to poetry. He's clear-eyed, whipsmart, and tender all at once, and such a graceful wrestler of language that he makes writing look easy even though, of course, it's not. His poems inspire me to find a balance of focus and freedom in my own work. -Maya Stein