5 Poets Who Write Moving Works
Poetry has the power to convey deep emotions and help readers to see things from a new perspective. Luckily for fans of this art form, there are a number of writers out there who have a talent for expressing themselves through poetic language. The poets listed here have written moving works about everything from immigration to health. This video was made with Ezvid Wikimaker.
Talented Contemporary Poets
Five Famous Poets From History
The writers on this list follow in a long tradition of using language to create moving works of art. Here are a few poets who came before them, and shaped the medium into what it is today.
Things Every Aspiring Poet Should Have
- A journal where you can keep track of your thoughts & ideas
- Some coffee or tea to get you through late-night bursts of inspiration
- A good poetry book to inspire you
- A comfortable keyboard so you don't end up with carpal-tunnel syndrome
- A laptop that's easy to bring along to your local coffee shop
- A height-adjustable desk to help you avoid hurting your lower back
- A foam roller for when you inevitably hurt your lower back anyway
The Pleasure of Poetry
In Depth
With few words and carefully chosen imagery, poetry has the power to evoke strong emotions. Poets use the medium to express personal stories, such as imprisonment, health challenges, and the immigrant experience. Here, in no particular order, are writers who are penning compelling and poignant verse.
Starting off the list at #1 is Molly McCully Brown. She is the author of the poetry collection The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics and Feebleminded, which was named a New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2017. Her compilation of essays, Places I've Taken my Body, details her battle with cerebral palsy. Kirkus Reviews calls it "heartfelt and wrenching," while Publishers Weekly hails it as "lyrical."
Brown is the recipient of the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, and the Jeff Baskin Writers Fellowship from Oxford American magazine. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, Crazyhorse, and Blackbird. She is a graduate of Bard College at Simon's Rock, and Stanford University.
Brown is the recipient of the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, and the Jeff Baskin Writers Fellowship from Oxford American magazine.
Coming in at #2 is Sonnet Mondal, author of the poetry books, Ink and Line, and Karmic Chanting, which Rochford Street Review hails as "an intricate tapestry of words." He was featured as one of the Famous Five in India Today magazine, and the Culture Trip listed him as a top literary entrepreneur of Indian poetry.
A writer in residence at Sierra Nevada University, Mondal has conducted poetry workshops at the Fairway Galle Literary Festival. He is one of the authors of the Silk Routes project of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. His work has appeared in Kyoto Journal, Irish Examiner, Blesok, and the McNeese Review.
At #3 is A. F. Moritz, a Canadian-American poet, teacher, and scholar. His chapbook, Art of Surgery, explores his experiences in the hospital while undergoing a cardiac procedure. Among the accolades he has received are the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award in Literature of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His collection, The Sentinel, was a Globe and Mail Top 100 of the Year.
His collection, The Sentinel, was a Globe and Mail Top 100 of the Year.
Other works include As Far As You Know, The Sparrow, and The New Measures, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award. The author's collaborations with his wife, scholar and writer Theresa Moritz, include biographies of humorist Stephen Leacock and activist Emma Goldman. In 2019, he was named the sixth Poet Laureate of Toronto.
In the #4 spot is Deborah Emmanuel, a TEDx speaker and multidisciplinary artist with a background in music and performance art. Her creative nonfiction book, Rebel Rites, is an account of her year in the Singapore Prison Service after testing positive for opiates following the law enforcement raid of a party she attended.
Emmanuel has trained at the Singapore Repertory Theatre and Griffith University in Brisbane. Her writings and dialogue have been featured at poetry festivals in Makassar, Barcelona, and Queensland. As a slam poet, she has won competitions in Germany and Australia, and hosted Show Me The City on Channel News Asia. Additional works include When I Giggle In My Sleep and Genesis.
Additional works include When I Giggle In My Sleep and Genesis.
Finishing up the list at #5 is Javier Zamora, whose collection of poems, Unaccompanied, explores the impact of immigration on his family. Born in El Salvador, he fled the country as a boy, eventually migrating to Arizona. The book was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
A former Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard, Zamora holds similar positions with MacDowell, the National Endowment for the Arts, Stanford, and Yaddo. He is also the recipient of a Narrative Prize, and the Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award for his work on the Undocupoets campaign. His essays have appeared in Literary Hub, Poetry Magazine, and The New York Times.
