KPL Congratulates Local Poet Diane Seuss on winning the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry!

KPL extends our heartfelt congratulations to local poet Diane Seuss for winning the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her work “frank: sonnets.” Seuss was previously a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer in poetry for her collection of poems “Four-Legged Girl.”

Seuss describes “frank: sonnets” as a memoir in sonnets. It travels over a number of harrowing experiences in her life, from the early death of her father and leaving New York City as a young poet, to stories of addiction.

Sonnets are traditionally defined as poems with 14 lines with a specific meter, or rhythm, and rhyme scheme. And while Seuss’ poems are 14 lines, she sometimes adheres to the meter and rhyme structure in the work but other times breaks from it.

The Pulitzer Prize Board’s description of her work calls “frank: sonnets” “a virtuosic collection that inventively expands the sonnet form to confront the messy contradictions of contemporary America, including the beauty and the difficulty of working-class life in the Rust Belt.”

Diane Seuss was born in Indiana and raised in Michigan. She earned a BA from Kalamazoo College and an MSW from Western Michigan University in 1978. She taught in the English department and served as writer-in-residence at the college until 2018. She also taught at the University of Michigan and Washington University in St. Louis.

KPL invites you to check out our collection of Diane Seuss publications.