Robert Bly
Selected Bibliography
Silence in the Snowy Fields: Poems (1962)
The Light Around the Body: Poems (1967)
Sleepers Joining Hands (1973)
This Tree Will Be Here for a Thousand Years (1979)
Loving a Woman in Two Worlds (1985)
4 Broadsides by Minnesota Authors (1986)
Iron John: A Book about Men (1990)
A Private Fall (1995)
The Sibling Society (1996)
The Maiden King: The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine (1998)
Eating the Honey of Words (1999)
Robert Bly (December 23, 1926-November 21, 2021) was born in Madison, Minnesota in 1926. He spent two years serving in the Navy from 1944-1946 before attending St. Olaf College for a year. After that, Bly attended Harvard at the same time as others who would later become notable poets such as Kenneth Koch and Adrienne Rich. Bly received his B.A. in 1950 and then an M.A. from the prestigious University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop in 1956. Bly and his then-wife, author Carol Bly, owned a farm where they raised their children.
An accomplished poet, Bly has garnered numerous awards for his work, including the National Book Award for his 1967 collection The Light Around the Body. In 2008, he had the honor of being Minnesota’s first Poet Laureate. Also an editor, essayist and translator, Bly has contributed a great deal to Minnesota’s literary scene, particularly by helping establish the Minnesota Writers’ Publishing House in 1970.
More information on Robert Bly from the Minnesota Historical Society.