About Meg Hartmann

I describe myself right now as a “lapsed but reforming” poet. The daughter of a librarian, I’ve always been a bookish person, and started seriously engaging with poetry as a teenager. I began my adult life following a familiar path for those with literary ambitions: a BA in English (capped by a long poem thesis), stints in the NYC publishing world (albeit at organizations that, while great places to learn and to chat with literary-minded colleagues, didn’t have much to do directly with poetry), an MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (a blessing which I’ll probably struggle to more fully understand for the rest of my life), and time as a writing teacher (adjunct and tutor) mainly for high school and undergraduate students.

After leaving Iowa City, my life as a poet gradually began to fizzle amid the typical struggles many of us face in our 20s and 30s as we try to make a living and start a family in the 21st century. At graduation, pursuing a tenure-track position in academia didn’t seem appealing, and I got lost on the path of exploring alternatives. Then, almost 15 years after finishing my MFA, the urge to make time for poetry again came back with a vengeance (kindled, both knowingly and unknowingly, by three kind people who uncannily thought to check in around the same time).

Side note: for anyone reading this who thinks they may be starting on a similar trajectory away from poetry, or who is halfway to where I was – 15 years of writing and reading time is too much to lose. Don’t do it.

This site is the result of a year of reacquainting myself with the journey I had abandoned, and a way for me to keep that exploration going. I’m also finding that all the lived experience of the intervening years means that I have a much different perspective now in my mid-40s than I did at 27, which changes my relationship with poetry for the better and helps me see much more easily what I couldn’t before.

As a poet, my major influences are H.D., William Carlos Williams, the Oulipians, Barbara Guest, Gertrude Stein, Jorge Luis Borges, and Federico García Lorca. I also carry a great debt to the following poets as teachers: Gale Nelson, Catherine Imbriglio, Mark Tardi, Cole Swensen, Brenda Hillman, and Dean Young. Finally, I’m grateful to the following people whose comments, however brief, helped me feel my perspective as a reader of poetry mattered when it was easy to feel lost among talented classmates: C.D. Wright, Daniel Balderston, and Robert Hass.

As a teacher of poetry, I am thankful to have had both a privileged and unusual writing education, and I want to bring what I’ve learned to those who haven’t had access to something similar. I want to emphasize that I am learning right alongside you. On any particular poetic topic, I’m far from being a true expert, and it’s very possible that you as the student might know more than I do about some things. Yet I hope to give you methods for approaching the unknown and unknowable, a way to find enjoyment in all kinds of poetry no matter your “level,” and some good questions that lead you where you might not expect. I’ve been lucky to have some generous and thoughtful teachers who I try to emulate, and there is some librarian-instinct I’ve inherited that has led to me once being called “unstintingly helpful.”

Beyond poetry, I’m a lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore with a close attachment to Barnegat Bay, though time in New York, Philadelphia, Miami, and Providence, RI has left its mark as well. I love long walks (a hike when I can get it) and evenings with a good history, travelogue, or art book. I’m not the most impressive nomad, but I have experimented with long-term travel (spending the most time in Antigua, Guatemala and Mexico City) and hope to do more. I’ve long had an interest in meditation and am an inconsistent yoga student. I’ve also managed to reach a conversational level in Spanish, though my slow but steady learning there has been put on hold due to my daughter. She loves elephants (quite dearly), and teaches me so much with her fresh perspective on the fun and mysteries of language.