![Linda_Pastan.jpg](https://cdn.grove.wgbh.org/dims4/default/5e241f7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/191x250+30+0/resize/275x360!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fk1-prod-gbh.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fmedia%2Fspeaker_headshots%2FLinda_Pastan.jpg)
Linda Pastan
poet
Born in the Bronx in 1932, Linda Pastan draws on experiences of daily life and of nature to create direct poems in a spare and engaging voice. Family experience--ordinary stories of husband and wife, of child and parent--are transformed in her poems to prisms for deep human themes, loss, growth, and the fragility of life. Pastan is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a Pushcart Prize and the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation, given for lifetime achievement. For many years, she has been associated with the Breadloaf Writers Conference.