Jane Hirshfield’s poetry speaks to the central issues of human existence—desire and loss, impermanence and beauty, the many dimensions of our connection with others and the wider community of creatures and objects with which we share our lives. Demonstrating with quiet authority what it means to awaken into the full capacities of attention, her work sets forth a hard-won affirmation of our human fate. Described by The New York Times as “radiant and passionate” and by other reviewers as “ethically aware,” “insightful and eloquent,” and as conveying “succinct wisdom,” her subjects range from the metaphysical and passionate to the political, ecological, and scientific to subtle unfoldings of daily life and experience. Her book of essays on the “mind of poetry” and her several collections presenting and co-translating the work of poets from the past have become classics in their fields. An intimate, profound, and generous master of her art, Hirshfield has taught at UC Berkeley, Duke University, Bennington College, and elsewhere, and her many appearances at writers’ conferences and literary festivals in this country and abroad have been highly acclaimed.

Laura Kasischke has published eight collections of poetry and eight novels. She was the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry for her collection SPACE, IN CHAINS (Copper Canyon Press, 2011). She has also been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rilke Award for Poetry, the Bess Hokin Award from POETRY magazine, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is teaches in the MFA Program and the Residential College at the University of Michigan, from which she graduated. She lives with her husband and son in Chelsea, Michigan.