Diane Seuss

Diane Seuss is an American poet known for her formally rigorous and emotionally candid work, particularly her mastery of the sonnet. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she grew up in rural Michigan and was raised mostly by her mother after her father's death from a drug overdose. frank: sonnets (2021), published by Graywolf Press, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The collection consists entirely of sonnets that draw on her working-class Michigan upbringing, her father's death, her own experiences with drugs and poverty, and the aesthetics of punk rock and film. The book was widely praised as a formal and emotional tour de force. Seuss's earlier collections include Four-Legged Girl (2015), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open (2010). She has received a Pushcart Prize, the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Seuss taught at Kalamazoo College in Michigan for many years. She is known as a transformative teacher as well as a poet, and her frank, confessional aesthetic has influenced a generation of writers. frank: sonnets was named one of the best books of 2021 by The New York Times, NPR, and many other publications.