The journey of an important feminist writer through poetry, prose, and politics

Among the most celebrated American poets of the past half century, Adrienne Rich was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Bollingen Prize, the National Book Award, and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award. In Understanding Adrienne Rich, Jeannette E. Riley assesses the full scope of Rich's career from 1957 to her death in 2012 through a chronological exploration of her poetry and prose.

Riley details the evolution of Rich's feminist poetics as she investigated issues of identity, sexuality, gender, the desire to reclaim women's history, and what she terms "the dream of a common language." Throughout the book she documents Rich's gradually developing assertion that poetry can create social change and engage people in the democratic process. Interweaving explications of Rich's poetry with analysis of her prose, Riley offers a close look at the development of the author's voice from formalist poet to feminist visionary to citizen poet.