Featured Poet 

Featured Illinois Poet

Although this website’s objective is simply to promote the art of poetry, its special focus is the rich bounty of work created by our state’s poets past and present. Through features on the work of Illinois poets, the site will highlight the poetic legacy of Illinois and showcase the bevy of fine poets currently writing within the state.

Biographical Note

Brigit Pegeen Kelly

Brigit Pegeen Kelly has published three volumes of poetry, To the Place of Trumpets (Yale University Press), Song (BOA), and The Orchard (BOA). Among her awards and honors are fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Whiting Foundation and publications in a number of volumes of the Pushcart Prize and the Best American Poetry anthologies. Kelly currently teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Poetry

• The Teacher from To The Place of Trumpets, Yale University Press, 1988
• The Peaceable Kingdom from To The Place of Trumpets, Yale University Press, 1988
• Young Wife’s Lament from To The Place of Trumpets, Yale University Press, 1988
• The Leaving

Brigit Pegeen Kelly's Poems

"The Teacher"

"The Peaceable Kingdom"

"Young Wife’s Lament"

"The Leaving"