List of feminist poets

This is a list of feminist poets. Historically, literature has been a male-dominated sphere, and any poetry written by a woman could be seen as feminist. Often, feminist poetry refers to that which was composed after the 1960s and the second-wave of the feminist movement.^[1][2] This list focuses on poet who take explicitly feminist approaches to their poetry.

A–D

• Kathy Acker (1947–1997), American experimental novelist, punk poet, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer
• Maya Angelou (1928–2014), American author and poet
• Elvia Ardalani (born 1963), Mexican poet, writer, and storyteller
• Margaret Atwood (born 1939), Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist and environmental activist
• Addie L. Ballou (1837–1916), American poet and suffragist
• Djuna Barnes (1892–1982), American modernist lesbian writer
• Aphra Behn (1640–1689), dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers
• Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979), American poet and short-story writer
• Eavan Boland (born 1944), Irish poet
• Sophia Elisabet Brenner (1659–1730), Swedish writer, poet, feminist and salon hostess
• Olga Broumas (born 1949), Greek poet, living in the United States
• Lucille Clifton (1936–2010), American writer and educator
• Mary Collier (ca. 1688–1762), English poet
• Jeni Couzyn (b. 1942), Canadian poet and anthologist of South African extraction
• H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886–1961), American poet, novelist and memoirist; known for her Imagist poetry
• Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), American poet
• Diane Di Prima (born 1934), American poet
• Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955), Scottish poet and playwright; first female and first Scottish Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
• Rachel Blau DuPlessis (born 1941), American poet and essayist, known as a feminist critic and scholar

E–K

• Muzi Epifani (1935–1984), Italian writer and poet
• Fehmida Riaz (born 1946), Urdu writer, poet, and feminist of Pakistan
• Mary Eliza Fullerton (1868–1946), Australian feminist poet, short story writer, journalist and novelist
• Alice Fulton (born 1952), American author, poet
• Frances Dana Barker Gage (1808–1884), American writer, poet, reformer, feminist and abolitionist
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935), American sociologist, author, poet and lecturer for social reform
• Hedwig Gorski (born 1949), American poet, author, artist, dramatist, and scholar
• Judy Grahn (born 1940), American feminist, lesbian poet
• Barbara Guest (1920–2006), American poet, author
• Marilyn Hacker (born 1942), American poet, translator and critic
• Jane Eaton Hamilton (born 1954), Canadian poet, fiction writer, photographer, visual artist
• Gwen Harwood (1920–1995), Australian poet and librettist
• Allison Hedge Coke (born 1958), American/Canadian poet
• Lyn Hejinian (born 1941), American poet, essayist, translator and publisher
• Dorothy Hewett (1923–2002), Australian feminist poet, novelist, librettist and playwright
• Susan Howe (born 1937), American poet, scholar, essayist and critic; closely associated with the Language poets
• Maryam Jafari Azarmani (born 1977), Iranian poet, Sonneteer, essayist, literary critic, translator
• Kishwar Naheed (born 1940), Urdu poet from Pakistan known for her pioneering feminist poetry
• Carolyn Kizer (born 1925), Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet; noted for her feminist poetry

L–R

• Sue Lenier (born 1957), English poet and playwright
• Anna Maria Lenngren (1754–1817), Swedish writer, poet, feminist, translator and salonist
• Denise Levertov (1923–1997), British-born American poet
• Patricia Lockwood (born 1982), American poet and essayist
• Audre Lorde (1934–1992), Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist
• Mina Loy (1882–1966), artist, poet, playwright, novelist, Futurist, actress, Christian Scientist, designer of lamps, and bohemian
• Chris Mansell (born 1953), Australian poet and publisher
• Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950), American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist
• Gabriela Mistral (Lucila Godoy Alcayaga) (1889–1957), Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist; first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
• Marianne Moore (1887–1972), American Modernist poet and writer
• Barbara Mor (1936–2015), American Feminist of the Goddess movement
• Robin Morgan (born 1941), American poet, author, political theorist and activist, journalist, lecturer, and former child actor
• Eileen Myles (born 1949) American poet and writer, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and LGBT activist
• Lorine Niedecker (1903–1970), American poet; only woman associated with the Objectivist poets
• Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718–1763), Swedish poet, feminist and salon hostess
• Alice Notley (born 1945), American poet and feminist
• Alicia Ostriker (born 1937), American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry
• Grace Paley (1922–2007), American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist
• Sylvia Pankhurst (1882–1960), English suffragist, poet
• Dorothy Parker (1893–1967), American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
• Parveen Shakir (1952–1994), Urdu poet, teacher and a civil servant of the Government of Pakistan
• Sylvia Plath (1932–1963), American poet, novelist and short story writer
• Katha Pollitt (born 1949), American feminist poet, essayist and critic
• Qiu Jin (1875–1907), Chinese revolutionary, feminist and writer
• Rita Mae Reese, American poet, fiction writer, and publisher
• Adrienne Rich (1929–2012), American poet, essayist and feminist
• Dorothy Richardson (1873–1957), English novelist, poet, essayist and short story writer
• Lola Ridge (1873–1941), anarchist poet and an influential editor of avant-garde, feminist, and Marxist publications
• Ethel Rolt-Wheeler (1869–1958), English poet, author and journalist
• Christina Rossetti (1830–1894), English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems
• Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980), American poet and political activist

S–Z

• Nandini Sahu (born 1973), Indian poet who writes in English
• Sonia Sanchez (born 1934), African American poet most often associated with the Black Arts Movement
• Sappho (fl. 6th century BC), Ancient Greek poet; one of the nine lyric poets
• Anne Sexton (1928–1974), American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse
• Jo Shapcott (born 1953), English poet, editor and lecturer
• Elena Shirman (1908-1942), Russian poet
• Edith Sitwell (1887–1964), British poet and critic, eldest of the three literary Sitwells
• Stevie Smith (1902–1971), English poet and novelist
• Gertrude Stein (1874–1946), American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France
• Alfonsina Storni (1892–1938), Swiss-Argentine poet
• May Swenson (1913–1989), American poet and playwright
• Sara Teasdale (1884–1933), American lyrical poet
• Ann Townsend (born 1962) American poet and essayist
• Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941), Russian and Soviet poet
• Anne Waldman (born 1945), American poet
• Rosmarie Waldrop (born 1935), American poet, translator and publisher
• Alice Walker (born 1944), American author, poet, and activist
• Phyllis Webb (born 1927), Canadian poet and radio broadcaster
• Nellie Wong (born 1934), Chinese-American feminist poet
• Merle Woo (born 1941), Asian American teacher, poet and activist
• Judith Wright (1915–2000), Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights
• Elinor Wylie (1885–1928), American poet and novelist
• Halima Xudoyberdiyeva (born 1947), Uzbek poet; People's Poet of Uzbekistan
• Mitsuye Yamada (born 1923), Japanese American activist, feminist, essayist, poet, story writer, editor, and professor

References