Louise Glück

Louise Glück (1943–2023) was an American poet and essayist born on April 22, 1943, in New York City. Raised on Long Island, she overcame anorexia nervosa during high school through years of therapy and studied poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University under mentors including Léonie Adams and Stanley Kunitz. Her career spanned decades, including service as US Poet Laureate (2003–2004) and teaching positions at Yale and Stanford. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature for her 'unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.' Her poetry is renowned for its emotional intensity, autobiographical elements, and use of mythology and nature imagery to explore trauma, desire, loss, and renewal. Among her most celebrated collections are The Wild Iris (1992, Pulitzer Prize winner), Averno (2006), and Faithful and Virtuous Night (2014, National Book Award winner). She also published essay collections and, unusually for a poet, a work of prose fiction, Marigold and Rose (2022). Glück died on October 13, 2023, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.