Anne Stevenson was a British-American poet and writer. She was born in England but her family moved to New Haven, CT when she was a baby. Stevenson planned to be a musician but while she was attending the University of Michigan she started to lose her hearing. She decided to be a writer instead. Stevenson returned to the UK where she lived the rest of her life until she died in September of 2020. She wrote many volumes of poetry, biographies of Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Bishop, and several volumes of essays. Stevenson also helped start The Poetry Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye. "You have to inhabit poetry if you want to…

June Robertson Beisch was a journalist who turned poet in her forties. She published poetry in such journals as The Literary Review and Harvard Review. Her poems were read three times by Garrison Keillor on his radio show. I stumbled across one of her poems and read it because it first line references a favorite aunt. I have a favorite aunt, though mine isn’t much like the frazzled, overpermed one in this poem, and I like the stanza that begins “The auntness of aunts.” I also learned a new word from this. Inutile means “useless, unusuable.” My favorite aunt was unmarried, half deaf and lived alone in a smoke-filled room…

Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentinean short story writer, poet, translator, and essayist. He won many awards and honors. His writing is described as “fantastical and densely symbolic…in a rigorous and economical style.” He was completely blind by age 55 and scholars have suggested that “his blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination.” After a while you learn the subtle difference Between holding a hand and chaining a soul, And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning And company doesn't mean security. And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts And presents aren't promises, And you begin to accept your defeats With your head up and…