With the appearance of his first record album in 1967, Leonard Cohen - already well known in his native Canada as a poet and novelist - was introduced to audiences in the United States, where he quickly took his place among the preeminent singer/songwriters of the time. Over the years, and through the release of eight more albums, Cohen gained a reputation as a dazzlingly literate and consistently daring songwriter. His status as a cult artist grew...

A brief biography of African American poet Amanda Gorman, discussing her childhood, education, and work as a poet and activist.

In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp

The story of poet Emily Dickinson, whose genius, wit, intellectual independence, and pathos only came to be recognized after her death.

"Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring...

After finishing college, a struggling poet finds work at an adult bookstore and discovers a mentor in an older, troubled poet.

Long ago, when hardly anyone knew how to read or write, people recited stories by heart. They sat around the hearth at night, telling of heroes and monsters, great battles fought, and fortunes made and lost. On feast days, they passed the harp around the room so that everyone could sing a poem. But when the harp reached Caedmon the cowherd, his thoughts dried up. He opened his mouth and nothing at all came out. It was embarrassing. No wonder he hated...

Reimagines the life of rebel poet Forugh Farrokzhad, a passionate young writer in search of freedom and independence from the restrictions imposed on women in mid-twentieth-century Iran

A profile of the life and career of poet/painter Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Carla is in her twenties, working for a landscaper, lacking confidence, still unsure what direction her life will take. Viridian is a lauded and lovely aging poet whose reputation has been defined by her infamous affair with a famous male poet, Mathias, many years earlier. When Carla is hired to work at Viridian's house, she is perplexed by this community of writers: their tendency to recite lines in conversation, the stories of their many liaisons,...