We Should Talk About: Elizabeth Bishop

Hello! I wanted to highlight one of my favorite poets, Elizabeth Bishop. Her poetry has been regarded as some of the strongest in the English language, and she is known for her command over words. Bishop won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for her poetry collection, North & South.

Elizabeth Bishop was an intensely private person with a difficult childhood, who struggled with alcoholism and had difficulty with the relationships in her life. She was born in 1911, experienced the death of her father as an infant and the admittance of her mother to an asylum as a very young child. Raised by her grandparents, she attended Vassar College and graduated in 1934. Bishop traveled the world and reflected it back in her poetry. The biography A Miracle for Breakfast by Megan Marshall is extraordinary, and you can learn more about Bishop here.

The novel Paris 7 A.M is a fictional account of her time in France (read it here) and helps to paint the image of who Elizabeth was in her youth. For a better understanding of her life in Brazil try watching the movie version of the years she spent there in Reaching for the Moon, here! This movie is available on Kanopy with your library card.

Need more!? Check out her works and more in our collection here!