Blue Front

Martha Collins (born 1940) is an American poet, translator, and editor who has published eleven books of poetry, including notable works such as Blue Front (2006, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award), White Papers (2012), Admit One: An American Scrapbook (2016), and Because What Else Could I Do (2019, winner of the Poetry Society of America's William Carlos Williams Award). Her poetry often addresses social issues like racism, war, and eugenics, and she has received numerous honors including multiple Pushcart Prizes, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Lannan Foundation Residency Grants, and the 2025 Golden Rose Award from the New England Poetry Club. She founded the creative writing program at UMass Boston and served as Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College. Read more →