Mary Jo Salter

Mary Jo Salter (August 15, 1954 - ) is an American poet, a coeditor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry [1] and a professor in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.

Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was raised in Detroit, Michigan and Baltimore, Maryland. She received her B.A. from Harvard University in 1976 and her M.A. from Cambridge University in 1978. In 1976, she participated in the Glascock Prize contest.

While at Harvard, she studied with the noted poet, Elizabeth Bishop. She has been an editor at the Atlantic Monthly and at The New Republic.

From 1984 to 2007, she taught at Mount Holyoke College and was, from 1995 to 2007, a vice president of the Poetry Society of America.

Salter is married to Brad Leithauser, a writer, who also teaches at Johns Hopkins University. They have two daughters, Emily and Hilary Leithauser.

[edit] Works

Henry Purcell in Japan (Knopf: 1985)
Unfinished Painting (Knopf: 1989) Lamont Selection for that year's most distinguished second volume of poetry
Sunday Skaters, nominated in 1994 for the National Book Critics Circle Award (Knopf)
A Kiss in Space (Knopf: 1999)
Open Shutters (Knopf: 2003), named a "notable book of the year" by The New York Times
A Phone Call to the Future: New and Selected Poems

2004: Meribeth E. Cameron Faculty Award for Scholarship
2003: Open Shutters named a "notable book of the year" by The New York Times
1989: Lamont Poetry Prize for the year’s most distinguished second volume of poetry - Unfinished Painting
1995–1996: Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship