Brenda Hillman

Brenda Hillman is the author of eleven books of poetry—including In a Few Minutes Before Later (Wesleyan Poetry Series, 2022); Loose Sugar (Wesleyan, 1997), finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Bright Existence (Wesleyan, 1993), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry—and a book of essays, Three Talks (University of Virginia Press, 2024). From 2016 to 2022, she served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. A professor emerita at St. Mary’s College of California, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. (updated 10/2025)