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Memoirs by Poets for National Poetry Month
Created by Bob Helmbrecht, collection development librarian
Memoirs written by poets are always popular with readers. Poetry is such an intimate, individual way of writing, that readers naturally want to learn more about the authors. They also often provide context and aid in a better understanding of the poems themselves. And, they're usually very well-written!
Interested in reading some poetic memoirs? Here are a few well-reviewed titles from the Library's collection to get you started.
"Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life" by Kim Addonizio
Kim Addonizio is used to being exposed. As a writer of provocative poems and stories, she has encountered success along with snark: one critic dismissed her as “Charles Bukowski in a sundress.” (“Why not Walt Whitman in a sparkly tutu?” she muses.) Now, in this utterly original memoir in essays, she opens up to chronicle the joys and indignities in the life of a writer wandering through middle age.
"Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet" by Robert Pinsky
In late-1940s Long Branch, an historic but run-down Jersey Shore resort town, in a neighborhood of Italian, Black, and Jewish families, Robert Pinsky began his unlikely journey to becoming a poet. Descended from a bootlegger grandfather, an athletic father, and a rebellious tomboy mother, Pinsky was an unruly but articulate high-school C-student whose obsession with the rhythms and melodies of speech inspired him to write. Pinsky traces the roots of his poetry, with its wide and fearless range, back to the voices of his neighborhood, to music and a distinctly American tradition of improvisation.
"Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City: A Memoir" by Jane Wong
In her debut memoir, Jane Wong tells a new story about Atlantic City, one that resists a single identity, a single story as she writes about making do with what you have--and what you don't. What does it mean, she asks, to be both tender and angry? What is strength without vulnerability--and humor? Filled with beauty found in unexpected places, "Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City" is a resounding love song of the Asian American working class, a portrait of how we become who we are, and a story of lyric wisdom to hold and to share.
"Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir" by Natasha D. Trethewey
The former U.S. poet laureate shares a personal memoir about the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather, and how this profound experience of loss shaped her as an adult and an artist. Animated by unforgettable prose and inflected by a poet's attention to language, this is a luminous, urgent, and visceral memoir from one of our most important contemporary writers and thinkers.
"Poet Warrior: A Memoir" by Joy Harjo
In the second memoir from the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, Joy Harjo invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic meditation, "Poet Warrior" reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice. Weaving together the voices that shaped her, Harjo listens to stories of ancestors and family, the poetry and music that she first encountered as a child, the teachings of a changing earth, and the poets who paved her way.
"Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping" by Shane McCrae
An award-winning poet presents this unforgettable memoir in which he recounts being kidnapped from his black father and raised by his white supremacist grandparents until he finally discovers the truth, allowing him to finally reunite with his father and find his own place in the world .A revelatory account of an American childhood that hauntingly echoes the larger story of race in our country, "Pulling the Chariot of the Sun" is written with the virtuosity and heart of one of the finest poets writing today. A powerful reflection on what is broken in America.
"Solito: A Memoir" by Javier Zamora
When Javier Zamora was nine, he traveled unaccompanied by bus, boat, and foot from El Salvador to the United States to reunite with his parents. This is his memoir of that dangerous journey, a nine-week odyssey that nearly ended in calamity on multiple occasions. It's a miracle that Javier survived the crossing and a miracle that he has the talent to now tell his story so masterfully. While "Solito" is Javier's story, it's also the story of millions of others who have risked so much to come to this country. A memoir that reads like a novel, rooted in precise and authentic detail, "Solito" is destined to be a classic of the immigration experience.
"Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse" by Brontez Purnell
The thirty-eight autobiographical pieces pulsing in "Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt" find Purnell at his no-holds-barred best. He remembers a vicious brawl he participated in at a poetry conference and reckons with packaging his trauma for TV writers’ rooms; wrestles with the curses, and gifts, passed down from generations of family members; and chronicles, with breathless verve, a list of hell-raising misadventures and sexcapades. Through it all, he muses on everything from love and loneliness to capitalism and Blackness to jogging and the ethics of art, always with unpredictable clarity and movement.
"You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir" by Maggie Smith
Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.