Dorothy Parker was an American, poet, critic, and satirist. She lived from 1893-1967. Parker sold her first poem to Vanity Fair in 1914 and shortly after accepted an editorial job at Vogue where she took over from P. G. Wodehouse as drama critic. When the New Yorker debuted in 1925 she was on the editorial board and she contributed regularly to the magazine. Parker was also a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, an informal group of writers known for its “scathing wit and intellectual commentary.” We'll go out to the open spaces, Break the web of the morning mist, Feel the wind on our upflung faces. {This, of…

I have featured Ted Kooser’s poetry twice before. You can see those poems here and here. I like the conversational quality of his poetry. It feels as if you are sitting on a front porch, looking out at the fields, and listening to him slowly talk as you both rock in rocking chairs. The gravel road rides with a slow gallop over the fields, the telephone lines streaming behind, its billow of dust full of the sparks of redwing blackbirds. On either side, those dear old ladies, the loosening barns, their little windows dulled by cataracts of hay and cobwebs hide broken tractors under their skirts. So this is Nebraska.…

Elinor Wylie was an American poet and novelist. She was born in 1885 to a socially prominent family and was raised to be a debutante and society wife. She did marry but then became notorious during her lifetime for her many affairs. Eventually, she left her husband and ran away to England with Harold Wylie, a Washington lawyer with a wife and three children. Wylie encouraged her to publish a volume of her poetry. The couple was eventually able to marry and they returned to the United States where Elinor became part of the literary circle of the day. She went on to publish several more volumes of poetry and…