Carolyn Forché (b.1950) is an American poet, editor, professor, and human rights advocate known for her poetry of witness, exploring war, oppression, and social justice. Her work blends personal experience with historical and political narratives, making her a significant voice in contemporary poetry.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Forché earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from Michigan State University (1972) and an M.F.A. from Bowling Green State University (1975.) She has taught at Georgetown University, Columbia University, and the University of Virginia.
Her first poetry collection, Gathering the Tribes (1976,) won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, establishing her as a rising literary figure. Her second, The Country Between Us (1981,) won the Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets, reflecting her experiences in El Salvador. Other notable works include The Angel of History (1994,) Blue Hour (2004,) and In the Lateness of the World (2020,) a Pulitzer finalist.
Forché also authored What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance (2019,) a National Book Award finalist, and edited Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness (1993.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Carolyn Forche
We are responsible for the quality of our vision, we have a say in the shaping of our sensibility. In the many thousand daily choices we make, we create ourselves and the voice with which we speak and work.
—Carolyn Forche
Topics: Vision
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