american poets

Presents a comprehensive biography of early nineteenth-century American poet and novelist Edward Estlin Cummings and chronicles his life through a series of personal papers, journals, and diaries.

Katy Lederer chronicles her childhood experiences as the daughter of two professional gamblers, discussing how her parents addictions impacted her life.

Mark Doty discusses what it was like to grow up as a homosexual, how his parents and siblings reacted to the news, and how he came to terms with his sexuality.

Chronicles the life of poet Muriel Rukeyser and analyzes her writings.

Presents more than three hundred poems and approximately one hundred letters by nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson.

Collects the letters, proposals, and poems--including extant works and variants--of eighteenth-century African-American writer Phillis Wheatley, who, a teenage female slave, became the first internationally well-known Black poet in the English language. Also includes writings by her contemporaries, and an introduction to her life and career.

Julie Harris takes viewers into Emily Dickinson's everyday world in a small New England town to couple and contrast facts about the poet with her extraordinary, original insights.

The poet shares his memories of writing the fifth inaugural poem in history, discusses what it means to be a Latino immigrant and openly gay man, and reveals his vision for poetry's new role in the nation's consciousness.