Louise Glück (1943-present) is an American essayist and poet born in New York City. She is one of the most accomplished and sensitive modern American poets. She has accomplished many feats, including winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1993, as well as a Nobel Prize in 2020. Glück's poetry is dark and beautiful, sensitive, inquisitive, experimental, and deeply human. She is currently a Writer-in-Residence at Yale University.
Content warning: contains themes of physiological and psychological illness, such as anorexia nervosa
Louise Glück Facts
Some quick facts about Glück's body of work, life, and poetry are listed below. These facts are by no means exhaustive, as her work and curious life could be interrogated much further than expressed here.
Fig. 1 - An iris, as in Glück's collection The Wild Iris.
Louise Glück Biography
Louise Glück was born in 1943 in New York City, but grew up in Long Island with her two parents. She developed Anorexia nervosa at a young age and struggled with the illness into her adult years. She began writing poetry at a young age and began taking courses in poetry workshops at St. Lawrence College as well as Colombia University for several years after her graduation from high school.
Glück is a sensitive poet who is interested in the existential, the sensitive, and the unknown. She explores the relationship of humanity to childhood, family, and our origins. She commonly includes themes of love and loss in her work, and explores the nature of humanity as something that is not eternal, rather short-lasting and all the more beautiful for it. Louise Glück won the Nobel Prize for Literature for her work done with childhood and emotional memory, and she explores trauma studies in her work as well.
Glück's work commonly includes allusions to Greek mythology, as she was taught Greek mythology at a young age by her parents. She also includes Biblical allusions in much of her work, and explores spirituality and faith as well. Some collections that include allusions to Greek mythology include her critically acclaimed work, The Triumph of Achilles (1985), as well as Averno (2006) and nearly all of her other collections.
Early life of Louise Glück
Louise Glück, born in New York City in 1943, spent most of her early years on Long Island. She lived with her parents, Daniel Glück (who invented the X-Acto Knife) and Beatrice Glück (a homemaker). Glück's parents reportedly taught her Greek mythology and read her classic stories, and Glück began writing poetry at an early age.
In her teen and early adult years, Glück developed Anorexia nervosa. She has claimed on several occasions that her development of this illness was a result of several traumatic events, one of which (the death of her eldest sister) occurred before she was born.1
Glück struggled with this loss into her late teen and early adult years. When she was a senior in high school she began psychoanalytic treatment, and several months after that took a leave of absence to concentrate on her rehabilitation. She has said that during this time she knew she was going to die, but more than that she did not want to die.2 Glück graduated high school in 1961 and continued psychoanalytic treatment for the next 7 years as she recovered from her illness.
Fig. 2 - Photograph of Louise Glück circa 1970s.
As a result of her continued recovery, upon high school graduation Glück did not immediately enroll in a degree-seeking program. Instead, she enrolled in a poetry workshop at St. Lawrence College, and continued to enroll in these workshops at Columbia University between the years of 1963 and 1966, as they accepted non-degree students. While attending these workshops, around the age of 22 Glück began publishing her work. Her first publication was in the magazine Mademoiselle, founded in 1934.
Anorexia nervosa is an illness that disproportionately affects young girls and women between the ages of 13 and 25. Official diagnosis of anorexia nervosa came into existence in the late 1800s, and has been treated as both a physiological and psychological illness ever since. Anorexia nervosa can be life-threatening. Some symptoms include fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of one's self-image. If you or anyone you know suffers from anorexia nervosa, don't hesitate to seek help from your local healthcare provider or Eating Disorder Helpline.
Career and Later Years of Louise Glück's Life
As Glück began to pick up steam in terms of writing, she began publishing her poetry in several literary magazines and newspapers, including The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly. She worked as a secretary after leaving Colombia to fund her living expenses, and married Charles Hertz Jr. in 1967. Glück published her first collection of poems, Firstborn, in 1968, which received critical acclaim.
Glück then suffered from self-proclaimed writer's block, which was resolved when she began teaching poetry at Goddard College in 1971. In 1975 she published her next collection House on Marshland, which is widely considered to be her breakthrough work.
In 1977 Louise Glück's marriage to Charles Hertz Jr. ended in divorce, and several years later she married author John Dranow. Glück went on to publish many works (outlined below) between the years of 1977 and 1980, and continued gaining popularity. In 1980, soon after publishing her collection Descending Figure, Glück's house in Vermont burned down, and she and John Dranow lost most of their possessions.
This tragedy inspired her to begin writing poems later included in her next and most famous collection, The Triumph of Achilles (1985). In 1984 Glück became a senior lecturer in the Department of English at Williams College. The following year, her father died, and his passing spurred the creation of her collection Ararat (1990).
The 1990s were a decade of literary success for Louise Glück, despite personal hardships such as her marriage to John Dranow ending in 1996. She published her collection Meadowlands, a collection focusing on the destruction of a marriage and the experience of divorce, that same year. In 2004, Glück became the Rosenkranz Writer-in-Residence at Yale University, where she remains today.
In 2020, Louise Glück received the Nobel Prize in Literature for her works exploring the nature of family and childhood, joining the small and powerful ranks of laureates. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Glück received this prize at her home and delivered her Nobel Lecture in writing. This lecture references William Blake and Emily Dickinson and their contributions to the relationships between poets and the wider public.
Louise Glück remains a Writer-in-Residence at Yale University.
Louise Glück's Books and Poetry Collections
Louise Glück has many poetry collections. Included below is a comprehensive list of her poetry collections, along with select honors for several of her collections.
| Title | Publisher | Year | Select Honors |
| Firstborn | The New American Library | 1968 | |
| The House on Marshland | The Ecco Press | 1975 | |
| Descending Figure | The Ecco Press | 1980 | |
| The Triumph of Achilles | The Ecco Press | 1885 | Melville Cane Award, National Book Critics Circle Award |
| Ararat | The Ecco Press | 1990 | Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry |
| The Wild Iris | The Ecco Press | 1992 | William Carlos Williams Award, Pulitzer Prize, finalist for the National Book Award |
| Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry | The Ecco Press | 1994 | PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction |
| Meadowlands | The Ecco Press | 1997 | |
| Vita Nova | The Ecco Press | 1999 | Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union, finalist for the National Book Award |
| The Seven Ages | The Ecco Press | 2001 | Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize |
| Averno | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2006 | Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union, L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, finalist for the National Book Award |
| A Village Life | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2009 | Finalist for the Griffin International Poetry Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award |
| Poems: 1962-2012 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2012 | Los Angeles Times Book Prize |
| Faithful and Virtuous Night | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2014 | National Book Award |
| American Originality: Essays on Poetry | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2017 | |
| Winter Recipes from the Collective | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2021 | |
Louise Glück's Poems
Louise Glück has hundreds of poems, along with many famous poems listed below. Her most famous poem by far is entitled 'Mock Orange' (1985) and is widely considered to be a feminist anthem.
| Select Poems | Year | Description |
| 'The Drowned Children' | 1968 | 'The Drowned Children' is a haunting tale of children who freeze to death in a pond. Glück was criticized on several occasions for writing this poem, as it depicts a horrific event in a numb and seemingly apathetic manner. |
| 'For Jane Meyers' | 1979 | 'For Jane Meyers' is a poem about a life ending and the acceptance of mortality. Glück commonly explores these themes in her work and this poem depicts the ways in which we can see death as a passive and inevitable thing as opposed to our enemy. |
| 'Mock Orange' | 1985 | 'Mock Orange' is, perhaps, Louise Glück's most famous poem. Commonly cited as a feminist anthem, it examines the ideas of love, sex, and relationships. |
| 'The Triumph of Achilles' | 1985 | 'The Triumph of Achilles' is a poem about Achilles accepting his mortality as he develops fully as a human. It's an exploration into death and humanity. |
| 'The Wild Iris' | 1992 | The eponymous poem for the collection The Wild Iris, the collection on the whole is a conversation between plants and a gardener. "The Wild Iris", in particular, is written from the perspective of a wild iris as it emerges into life from the darkness of beneath the soil. |
| 'The Red Poppy' | 1992 | 'The Red Poppy' is also from the collection The Wild Iris. The poem traces a red poppy as it unfurls its heart to the sun and experiences the sensation of individuality, rejection and loss. |
| 'Nostos' | 1996 | 'Nostos' is an allusion to Greek mythology. In this poem, the speaker recalls her childhood memories and explores the difference between modern day and her childhood. This is a nostalgic and somewhat sorrowful poem about the nature of aging. |
| 'The Empty Glass' | 2001 | 'The Empty Glass' is another poem about accepting the reality of mortality and loss of control. It follows a speaker that asks questions about the nature of existence, and ends with a revelation about the universe and our place in life itself. |
| 'Aboriginal Landscape' | 2013 | This poem explores the themes of grief and loss. It traces a speaker who is visiting the graves of her parents and having an internal struggle regarding the nature of life and death. |
Louise Glück Quotes
There are many, many quotations that Louise Glück is known for. She is not one who shies away from the nature of humanity, but rather she centers herself in the world as a person who writes vulnerable and sensitive poetry. Below are a few quotations that make Glück stand out as a writer and person with a distinctive and unique poetic voice.
We look at the world once, in childhood.
The rest is memory.3
Louise Glück won the Nobel Prize in Literature for her work regarding childhood and family. The above quotation is from her poem 'Nostos', which explores the concept of memory and the nostalgia of looking back on one's childhood. Glück explores the nature of humanity and childhood as well as the development of the self and soul in much of her work.
They say
there is a rift in the human soul
which was not constructed to belong
entirely to life. 4
This quotation above comes from the poem 'Persephone the Wanderer' (2006), and is well known for describing the sensation of not being fully grounded in the body, as well as the liminal state of human mortality. Glück is also known to interrogate this liminal space between the spirit and the self in her writing techniques and styles. She says regarding the ellipsis:
I am attracted to ellipsis, to the unsaid, to suggestion, to eloquent, deliberate silence. The unsaid, for me, exerts great power: often I wish an entire poem could be made in this vocabulary. 5
This quotation points to the way in which a writer can use formatting and punctuation to create new meaning in a piece of writing. Glück's interest in this form of writing demonstrates her existential, yet relatable and beautiful work.
See if you can find any of the poetic devices Glück is most well known for in her poetry. Can you find an example of ellipses in any of her work?
Louise Glück - Key Takeaways
- Glück attended Columbia University as a non-degree-seeking student, and studied poetry in workshops that led to her becoming so well-known.
- Glück's most famous poem is 'Mock Orange', which is popularly viewed as a feminist anthem.
- Glück was divorced two times and commonly writes about these experiences as she explores relationships and love in works such as Meadowlands.
- She won the Pulitzer Prize for her collection The Wild Iris, and several poems from this collection are very well-known, including: 'The Wild Iris' and 'The Red Poppy'.
- Louise Glück won the Nobel Prize in Literature for her writing surrounding childhood and family dynamics.
1 Daniel Morris. The Poetry of Louise Glück: A Thematic Introduction. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. 2006.
2 Louise Glück. Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry. 1994.
3 Louise Glück. 'Nostos'. Meadowlands. 1997.
4 Louise Glück. 'Persephone the Wanderer'. Averno. 2006.
5 Louise Glück. 'Disruption, Hesitation, Silence'. 1993
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