Life

She graduated from Goucher College

Goucher College

Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...

, and from Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 with a Ph.D.

She was editor of The American Poetry Review, and she is Advisory Editor of Calyx.
She has taught at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

, and Smith College

Smith College

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

.
She is on the faculty of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College

Warren Wilson College

Warren Wilson College is a private four-year work college in the Swannanoa Valley, North Carolina, United States near Asheville. It is known for its curriculum of work, academics, and service, called "the Triad," which requires every student to work an on-campus job, perform at least one hundred...

, and lives in Philadelphia.

She has been active in civil rights and peace movements.

Awards

• 1991 MacArthur Fellowship
  MacArthur Fellows Program
  The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
  
  
• National Endowment for the Arts
  National Endowment for the Arts
  The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
  
   fellowship
• Juniper Prize
• two Pushcart Prizes.

Works

• "Without Regret", Poetry Foundation
• "What loves, takes away", Poetry (September 2008)
• "The Messenger", Poetry Foundation
• "The Last Man", Poetry Foundation
• "The Girl with Bees in Her Hair", Poetry Foundation
• "Reading the Bible Backwards", Poetry Foundation
• "Magnificat", Poetry (August 2004)
• "Wreck" and "rise above", Poetry (January 2007)
• "Bailing Out-A Poem for the 1970s", Poetry Foundation
• "Last Self-Portrait, as Rembrandt, for Instance"; "Musical Chairs"; "Unstitch the Universe"; "Guardian"; "Lyrics for a Virtual Folk Song "; "Multiple Image, Retro-Girlhood '40s Style"; "No High Ground"; "Attic Light"; "Winter Conception"; "Daphne Planet as Urn"; "Like Warmed, Vague Stars", The Drunken Boat

• Maya (poems), University of Massachusetts Press (Amherst, MA), 1979.
• Shekhinah (poems), University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1984. ISBN 9780226900254
• The Girl with Bees in Her Hair (Copper Canyon Press
  Copper Canyon Press
  Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
  
  , 2004) ISBN 9781556592034
• Tourist in Hell (University of Chicago Press, 2010) ISBN 9780226900322

Non-fiction

• "Poetry and the Pentagon: Unholy Alliance?", Poetry Foundation, 3.2.06

• Gathering the Winds: Visionary Imagination and Radical Transformation of Self and Society, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1975.

External links

• "An E-view with Eleanor Wilner", The Drunken Boat", Rebecca Seiferle, 2000