MyNPL: Northfield Poet Laureate: Northfield Poets and Poetry

A Partial List of Northfield Poets

Jennie Laura Autonoe. Ordinary Magic.

Becky Boling

Christopher Brunelle. The Church Year in Limericks | The Church Year in Limericks, Volume 2

Heather Candels

†Brent Christianson (1951-2020). Beautiful, In My Chaotic Way (2018) | Third and Twelve on Your Own Eighteen (2018) | Sky Beyond the Ceiling (2018) | The Lake Remains: Poems of the North Country (2019)

Florence Dacey. The Swoon | The Necklace | Maynard Went This Way | Rock Worn by Water

Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Professor of English at St. Olaf College. Paper Pavilion | Interrogation Room | Notes from a Missing Person (chapbook) | Necro Citizens (chapbook)

*Heather Dubrow, former Professor of English at Carleton College (1980-1990). Transformation and Repetition (chapbook) | Border Crossings (chapbook) | Forms and Hollows

*Mary Moore Easter, Professor of Dance (Emerita) at Carleton College. Free Papers (2021; chapbook) | From the Flutes of Our Bones (2020) | The Body of the World (2018) | Walking from Origins (chapbook)

Toni Easterson

Andrea Een, Professor of Music (Emerita) at St. Olaf College. Some Days We Name It Love (chapbook)

†Graham Frear (1922-2014), Professor of English (Emeritus) at St. Olaf College. Red Shoes and Other Poems for My Wife | Love, Marriage, Cancer, Death, and Poetry in Past and Present Tenses

Marie Vogl Gery. Almost Invisible Names (chapbook)

Mac Gimse, Professor of Art (Emeritus) at St. Olaf College. 2020 Living Treasure Award recipient.

D.E. Green. Jumping the Median (2019)

Rob Hardy (Poet Laureate). Shelter in Place (2022 chapbook) | Domestication (2017) | The Collecting Jar (2005 chapbook)

*Keith Harrison, Professor of English and writer-in-residence at Carleton College from 1968 to 1996. A list of Keith Harrison's publications.

Brenda Hellen

Greg Hewett, Professor of English at Carleton College. To Collect the Flesh (1996) | Red Suburb (2002) | The Eros Conspiracy (2006) | darkacre (2010) | Blighdsight (2016)

†George Huntington (1835-1916) was a professor of Rhetoric and Biblical Literature at Carleton College from 1879 to 1906. He is perhaps best known in Northfield as the author of Robber and Hero: The Story of the Northfield Bank Raid. "When I Am Old" | "International Hymn"

Christine Kallman

†Scott King (1965-2021). Publisher, Red Dragonfly Press. Lida Songs (2009) | All Graced in Green (2011) | Dragonfly Haiku (2016)

Diane LeBlanc, Professor of English and Director of the Writing Program at St. Olaf College. Hope in Zone Four (1998) | Dancer with Good Sow (2008) | Sudden Geography (2014) | The Space for Message (2017) | The Feast Delayed (2021)

Steve McCown. Ghosting (2020)

Jane Taylor McDonnell. A Bone in the Throat (2013)

Susan Jaret McKinstry, Professor of English at Carleton College.

*Marilyn Nelson, former instructor of English at St. Olaf College (1973-1978).

Riki Kölbl Nelson. Borders/Grenzen (bilingual poems) | The Fall Heart (chapbook)

*†Grace Fallow Norton (1876-1962). Little Gray Songs from St. Joseph's (1912) | The Sister of the Wind and Other Poems (1914) | Roads (1916) | What is Your Legion (1918) | The Miller's Youngest Daughter (1924). Norton was the first published poet born in Northfield, though she left Northfield in the early 1890s and spent most of her career as a poet in New York and France.

Gregory Randall. Fantasia for the Unstuck Hour | A Cartography of Selves | Double Happiness (chapbook)

Joanna Rawson. Quarry (1998) | Unrest (2009)

*Clare Rossini, former English professor at Carleton College. Winter Morning with Crow (1997) | Lingo (2006)

*†Peter Schjeldahl, (1942-2022). Former art critic for The New Yorker and author of several books of poetry. Schjeldahl grew up in Northfield, graduated from Northfield High School and attended Carleton College for three years (he won the first Huntington Poetry Prize, awarded by the English Department, in 1962, and was awarded an honorary degree by the college in 2015).

Leslie Schultz. Still Life with Poppies: Elegies (2016) | Cloud Song (2018) | Concertina (2019)

Kaethe Schwehn, Professor of English at St. Olaf College. Tanka & Me (2015)

Joanne Sullivan

*†Marcella Taylor (1933-2003). Professor of English (Emerita) at St. Olaf College. Songs for the Arawak (chapbook) | A Body That Remembers (2001)

Mar Valdecantos

†David Walters (1945-2020)

✝︎Helen Field Watson (1885-1978). Field Notes (1949).

†Robert Watson (1825-1913). Editor of Gleanings, the first book of poetry published in Northfield (1888). Many of the poems in the collection were written by Watson but published anonymously.

*Karen Herseth Wee. The Book of Hearts (1994) | Before Language (chapbook) | Audio archive of Karen Herseth Wee's readings and workshops at Holden Village

*†Reed Whittemore (1919-2012), former U.S. Poet Laureate, Professor of English at Carleton College (1947-1966). Wikipedia | Library of Congress | Poetry Foundation | Academy of American Poets

If you know of a poet who should be added to this list, or if you are yourself a poet who should be added, please let me know. An asterisk (*) next to a name indicates a poet who no longer lives in Northfield, but who spent a portion of his or her career here. † indicates a deceased poet.