Gluck is a poet whose willingness to confront the horrible, the difficult, and the painful has resulted in a body of work characterized by insight and a severe lyricism. Though sometimes cliched, her work is moving and thought-provoking. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2003-20

Fantastic, Lyrical, Mythic, Nostalgic

One of the most important Native American writers of the post-1968 generation, James Welch, to a large degree, established a genre. What he gave us was Native American Literature: literature unmistakably about Indian subjects, written by an Indian writer. His characters were never drawn from sensa

Clean, Clever, Deconstructive, Epic, Expansive, Figurative, Illusive, Lyrical, Mythic, Native american fiction, Native american poetry, Pioneering, Post-colonialism, Sincere, Spiritual, Sublime, Tragic, Tribal

Sherman J. Alexie, Jr. was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane. Born hydrocephalic (water on the brain), Alexie underwent brain operation at the age of six. He survived the surgery,

Angry, Dark, Death, Deconstructive, Dreamy, In-your-face, Lyrical, Mythic, Native american fiction, Native american poetry, Pioneering, Playful, Political, Post-colonialism, Rhythmic, Rough, Spiritual, Tragic, Tribal

There is a particular grunt, sputter, and song in a Heaney poem: "Perch on their water perch hung in the clear Bann River/Near the clay bank in alder dapple and waver." This is another poet in love with his language -- specifically, the cadences of the Irish tongue. The sounds of clattering, bumping,

Composed, Event, Lyrical, Modernist poetry, Mythic, Sensual, Serene