I sat down this morning with the 2014 version of “The Best American Poetry”, flipping through the pages, hoping to come across a poem that would toss a match onto my thoughts and light the flame of ingenuity. For a while I sat and flipped, and then flipped back again, and again. In the process…

Stephen Dunn was born in 1939 in Queens, New York and went to college at Hofstra University where he played basketball on a scholarship. After college, Dunn worked in the advertising business. After a few years in the business, Dunn decided to quit his job and traveled to Spain to write his first novel along…

Even though Brad Leithauser attended Harvard Law and had a career as a lawyer, he never lost his love of poetry, one that began in high school. He then traveled to Japan to work in a law office but wrote while he was there. He never was really as interested in law as he was…

Matthew Zapruder is an American poet, editor, translator, and professor who was born in Washington D.C.. He studied Russian Literature at Amherst College and then received an MA in Slavic Languages from the University of California, Berkeley as well as an MFA in Poetry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His works are very well-regarded…

Robert Hass is a contemporary American poet who in addition to writing poetry, is known for translating and being a critic of Polish poetry and Japanese Haikus. Hass is recognized for his clarity of expression, conciseness, imagery, and the fact that he draws inspiration from everyday life. Contemporary poet Forrest Gander says that Hass’ “work…

Susan Parr is the author of Pacific Shooter, awarded the Lena-Miles Wever Todd prize from Pleiades Press.  Her work is anthologized in The Best American Poetry series and in Alive at the Center: Poetry from the Pacific Northwest (Ooligan Press, 2013). Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, she was educated at Barnard College in New…

Born in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes spent most of his childhood in Jamaica. Dawes is described as a poet, actor, editor, and former Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. Growing up in Jamaica, Dawes attended Jamaica College and the University of the West Indies where he received…

Andrei Codrescu was born in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania, and  emigrated to the U.S in 1966. He founded Exquisite Corpse which is a Journal of Books & Ideas in 1983 and taught literature and poetry at Johns Hopkins University, University of Baltimore, and Louisiana State University.  He won the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English award. He’s…

Danielle DeTiberus is an award winning poet from Connecticut. DeTiberus taught preschool, kindergarten and middle school in Asheville, NC before moving to Charleston, SC in 2009, where she is still living and thriving. When DeTiberus moved to Charleston, she began teaching composition, literature, and creative writing at Trident Technical College. She currently teaches creative writing…

James Longenbach is an American published poet, critic, and professor of English at the University of Rochester. Longenbach teaches a variety of classes, including modern and contemporary American poetry, British and American modernism, James Joyce, Shakespeare, and creative writing. Longenbach grew up in New Jersey and attended Princeton University and Trinity College. He has received…