Kelly Cherry is the author of over twenty-five books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including The Life and Death of Poetry and Quartet for J. Robert Oppenheimer. She is Eudora Welty Professor Emerita of English and Evjue-Bascom Professor Emerita in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She and her husband live in Virginia.

Praise for The Life and Death of Poetry

“Her own language...is exquisite: imaginative, vivid and rhythmic, in a voice that is alternately curious, meditative, mournful, witty, wise....We feel that what [Cherry] wishes to say throughout this collection, she has indeed said—with a discernment, imagination and music that leave us enchanted.”—Claudia MonPere McIsaac, America

“Cherry's wry wit and the genuine pleasure she takes in composing remind the reader of the glee young children find in discovering rhyme and meter. As always [her] poems are meticulously crafted.”—Alabama Writers’ Forum

“A past poet laureate of Virginia, [Cherry] is a poet at the height of her powers, and her talent and wit are on display in The Life and Death of Poetry.”—Baton Rouge Advocate

REVIEW: The Life and Death of Poetry (Chamber 4)

"Kelly Cherry’s The Life and Death of Poetry turns on the idea that language and communication are means of understanding and moving one another, of spreading love and forgiveness and mercy throughout the world, as a means of counteracting the destruction that has taken place."—Contemporary American Poetry Review

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