TOP

Mary Ruefle

Mary Ruefle
Photo by Matt Valentine

Mary Ruefle

Born: 16 April 1952

Though poet and essayist Mary Ruefle was born outside Pittsburgh, she spent her youth moving around the United States and Europe with her military family. She has published over a dozen books of poetry, including Dunce (2019), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, My Private Property (2016), Indeed I Was Pleased with the World (2007), and The Adamant (1989), which won the Iowa Poetry Prize and A Little White Shadow (2006), her book of erasures. She is also the author of the essay collection Madness, Rack, and Honey (2012) and the work of fiction The Most of It (2008). (Source)

Poems by Mary Ruefle

Header PostFeaturedImage 09

Kiss of the Sun by Mary Ruefle

October 18, 2025
“I will be standing at the edge of that fathomless crowd with an orange for you,” — Mary Ruefle
Header PostFeaturedImage 01

The Hand by Mary Ruefle

October 13, 2022
"You know the answer, you suspect / you are the only one" — Mary Ruefle
Header PostFeaturedImage 06

Perfect Reader by Mary Ruefle

September 10, 2011
"I go home at the end and watch / the news about the homeless couple who met in the park, / and then the weather, to see how they will feel tomorrow." — Mary Ruefle