Tribute Readers

Andrea Cohen

Andrea Cohen’s most recent books are Nightshade, and her new collection, Everything. She directs Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, MA.

Kathleen Finneran

Kathleen Finneran is the author of The Tender Land: A Family Love Story, and teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

Anne Marie Macari

Anne Marie Macari is the author of five books of poems, most recently Red Deer, and Heaven Beneath.

Carol Muske-Dukes

Carol Muske-Dukes is the author of nine books of poetry, as well as novels. Her most  recent book of poems, Blue Rose, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Betsey Osborne

Betsey Osborne, a teacher and writer, is the author of the novel The Natural History of Uncas Metcalfe.

Carl Phillips

Carl Phillips teaches at Washington University in St. Louis and is the author of numerous books of poems, most recently Pale Colors in a Tall Field and forthcoming Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020.

Ira Sadoff

Ira Sadoff’s most recent book is Country, Living . He’s published seven books of poems, a novel, an Ira Sadoff Reader, and a book on contemporary poetry History Matters.

Carey Salerno

Carey Salerno is the Executive Director of Alice James Books. She is the author of Shelter, Tributary, and the coeditor of Lit from Inside: 40 Years of Poetry from Alice James Books.

Our Beloved Jane Mead

Our beloved Jane Mead was an extraordinary poet, the author of seven collections of poems, including To the Wren: Collected and New Poems 1991-2019.

 Jane’s work received much critical praise and she was the recipient of many awards and fellowships such as from The Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan, and the Whiting Foundation. Her book, World of Made and Unmade, was long-listed for the National Book Award and was a finalist for both the Griffin International Poetry Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Jane was an adored  teacher and mentor at various colleges, including Colby, Washington University, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and Drew University. For many years she was poet-in-residence at Wake Forest University. With Jan Weissmiller she co-owned Prairie Lights Books, in Iowa City.

Jane devoted her life to poetry, to the wilderness, to animals. She was an advocate for the environment. For many years Jane managed her family’s farm in Napa, California. She is deeply missed by her extended family, her friends, colleagues, and former students.

 “Love is a ticket, whatever love is.

And to where I could not say.”

“I wrote a tribute to Jane that was published at writer Adrian Koesters's blog earlier this year. Jane and I met in a poetry workshop she taught at UC Berkeley Extension in 1992, before her first book was published, and we remained friends. She was enormously important to me and I miss her every day.”

— Mari L'Esperance

“When I was finishing up my MFA program at Drew, I deliberately asked Jane to be my second reader on my manuscript, and she graciously agreed to take it on, though I am sure she was very busy. I had many wonderful mentors and teachers at Drew, and have made life-long friends, but the edited copy of my work Jane sent back to me is the only thing from Drew I keep on my desktop. Sometimes I return to it, when I get a string of rejections, just to see her words -- both encouraging and ever questioning, teaching -- and always intuitive. When I returned to campus for my graduation - the first words she said to me there in the foyer at Mead Hall were - congratulations, you're a poet. I carry that with me every day.”

— Bruce Lowry

“Placeholder Quote.”

— Quote source