Mother

Dorothea Lasky is the author of several poetry books, most recently, Mother (Wave Books, 2026) and The Shining (Wave Books, 2023). Her other poetry books include: Milk (Wave Books, 2018), Rome (Liveright/W.W. Norton, 2014), Thunderbird (Wave Books, 2012), Black Life (Wave Books, 2010), and AWE (Wave Books, 2007). She is also the author of Animal, published in 2019 in the Bagley Wright Lecture Series and MEMORY (Semiotext(e), 2025), as well as a future book about Sappho. She is the editor of Essays (Essay Press, 2023) and a coeditor of Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry (McSweeney’s, 2013). Her first novel, Katie, is forthcoming from HarperCollins. Her writing has appeared in Poetry, The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review, among other places. She holds a doctorate in creativity and education from the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Poetry at Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she directs the Poetry program. She lives in New York City.

• MotherMotherMotherLove is RedI played GodProgesterone Love PoemMotherMotherRadical MotherhoodMother and ChildBad TeacherThe C-SectionMotherWaitingFood for BabiesPeriod at 43RosemaryPoem for my DaughterPainSexualBirthMotherEveryone hates pregnant womenThree DaysWater holds no new memoriesC-SectionDo it from the gutWorstItYellow and GreenThe AfternoonRosesThe BirthA Bad DayDon’t leave DottieDemon MotherTwo Men and a Car CrashLittle babyTwo MonthsNothing like that ferocious loveThe Colorful BirdThe Last Moments of the EggAll the color’s drainedIn My Mother’s TombMotherThe Lodge at Mount Rainier

Lasky abandons the notions of linearity and coherence, introducing possibilities of renewal out of instances of trauma by reaching for a musical phrasing all her own…. Don’t look for daintiness nor defeatism in Lasky’s weighty lines but rather fierce, quick-witted associations that make space for one woman’s power to name her world."—Major Jackson, Academy of American PoetsExhibiting her typically unabashed, rhythmic, and confessional style, Lasky revels in both shadow and light as she writes through isolation, motherhood, and loss. …Lasky’s voice is hypnotically primal, resulting in inexplicable, yet palpable desire."—Publishers WeeklyShe intends to perturb, disturb, disrupt, and awaken."—Nathaniel Rosenthalis, Boston Review