I'd like to read more and learn a bit about the mid- and late-20th century writers, especially the women. I suspect I'd enjoy the Beats. Does anyone have any suggestions for good places to start, please?

Beats were kind of a boys club so there aren't a lot of women associated with that movement.

Some of the better known women poets from that era that have some connection to the beats: Diane di Prima, Joanne Kyger (married to Gary Snyder at one point, but an excellent writer herself. Came to more prominence later), ruth weiss.

Not a beat but of that generation (slightly later) Denise Levertov.

More contemporary, I love Sharon Olds.

Elizabeth Bishop is - I think - one of the best American poets of the midcentury.

Sylvia Plath of course. Anne Sexton.

Rita Dove (former Poet Laureate, Ohioan, alumna of my college [which helps with the whole Paul Ryan thing]). [link]

Naomi Shihab Nye. [link]

Adrienne Rich. (The poem here [link] I almost used at our wedding, but it's a little *too* intimate to have read in public. Not sexy, just...it kind of guts me. In a good way.)

Maya Angelou.

Oh, Rita Dove has some wonderful stuff.

Lucille Clifton is another good one. And Margaret Atwood wrote some good poetry.

I would look for an anthology, like, say an anthology of 20th century american women poets, which I just made up but probably exists, and get a snippet of all of the above, and then see who you like and go deeper.

Thanks, y'all. I picked up a couple of anthologies at the library, and I'll look for the names above.

Just throwing suggestions out for women poets to read but try - Nikki Giovanni I discovered her in high school, I think one of her poems was reprinted in Ms. Magazine and I read it over and over. Ego Tripping, that's the name of the poem.

Oh and Gwendolyn Brooks.

And even though she was popular in the 30s Elinor Wylie has fallen out of favor but she's always been a favorite poet. I love Sea Lullaby.

The Toast had an article on female beat poets: Elise Cowen: The Female Beat Poet You’ve Never Heard Of.

Oh, I love Lucille Clifton. And Naomi Shihab Nye. Sharon Olds, of course, and Dove, and Rich, and Angelou. A couple of personal favorites are Marge Piercy and Jane Kenyon--those two did a lot to help me survive the late 90s, early oughties--personal epiphany, painful growth and change, etc.

All of these recs are great! A couple I love whom I don’t think have been mentioned: Linda Pastan and Louise Gluck. And Joy Harjo (not as well known; a Native poet with a beautiful style) and Maxine Kumin.

ETA: A great anthology is No More Masks: [link]