The Oval Hour

Kathleen Peirce (born 1956) is an American poet who grew up in Rock Island, Illinois, and graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1988. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Mercy (1991), The Oval Hour (1999), The Ardors (2004), Vault (2017), and Lion's Paw (2021), and has taught poetry in the MFA program at Texas State University since 1993. Her awards include the AWP Award for Mercy, the Iowa Poetry Prize and William Carlos Williams Award for The Oval Hour, a Whiting Award, NEA and Guggenheim Fellowships. Read more →