Mary Jo Salter
- Born
- 1954 · Grand Rapids.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- poet · writer · university teacher · literary theorist · editing staff
- Fields
- American poetry · creative writing · editing
- Education
- University of Cambridge · Harvard University
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Languages
- English
In this article
Key facts
Mary Jo Salter studied at University of Cambridge and Harvard University. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is American poetry, creative writing and editing. Employment is recorded with Johns Hopkins University and Mount Holyoke College. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship.
• Name — Mary Jo Salter • Born — 1954 08 15 • Birthplace — Grand Rapids, Michigan • Occupation — Poet, editor • Education — Harvard University Cambridge University • Genre — Poetry Mary Jo Salter (born August 15, 1954) is an American poet, a co-editor of multiple editions of The Norton Anthology of Poetry and professor emerita in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.
Life
Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was raised in Detroit and Baltimore, Maryland. She received her B.A. from Harvard University in 1976 and her M.A. from Cambridge University in 1978. In 1976, she participated in the Glascock Prize contest. While at Harvard, she studied with the noted poet Elizabeth Bishop. She has been an editor at the Atlantic Monthly and at The New Republic. From 1984 to 2007, she taught at Mount Holyoke College and was, from 1995 to 2007, a vice-president of the Poetry Society of America. She has two daughters, Emily and Hilary Leithauser. She is on the editorial board of the literary magazine The Common, based at Amherst College.
Edited
• The Norton Anthology of Poetry, W. W. Norton, 1996, (co-editor)
Selected translations
• The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010)
Play
• Falling Bodies (2004)
Articles
• The Achiever: Helen Keller by Mary Jo Salter
Poems online
• "Tromp l'Oeil", Blue Flower Arts • "A Kiss in Space and A Rainbow Over the Seine"
Books of poetry
• Henry Purcell in Japan, Knopf, 1985, • Unfinished Painting, Knopf, 1989, Lamont Selection for that year's most distinguished second volume of poetry • Sunday Skaters, A.A. Knopf, 1994, nominated in 1994 for the National Book Critics Circle Award (Knopf) • A Kiss in Space, Knopf, 1999, • Open Shutters, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, named a "notable book of the year" by The New York Times • A Phone Call to the Future: New and Selected Poems • Nothing by Design, Knopf, 2013, • The Surveyors, Knopf, 2017, • Zoom Rooms, Knopf, 2022
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Mary Jo Salter, revision 1370814904 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Awards
• 1981: The Frost Place poet in residence • 1995–1996: Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship • 1989: Lamont Poetry Prize for the year’s most distinguished second volume of poetry - Unfinished Painting • 2003: Open Shutters named a "notable book of the year" by The New York Times • 2004: Meribeth E. Cameron Faculty Award for Scholarship
Children's literature
• The Moon Comes Home (1989)
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Poetry Foundation. Mary Jo Salter.
- 2.Johns Hopkins University. Mary Jo Salter | The Writing Seminars.
- 3.Thecommononline.org. About | The Common. 2012-05-01.
- 4.Random House Digital, Inc. A Phone Call to the Future: New and Selected Poems. 2009. 978-0-375-71156-5.
- 5.The Achiever. The New York Times.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 27 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
37,846 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Mary Jane KatzmannAuthor
- Mary Jane NealonAuthor
- Mary Jane WardAuthor
- Mary Jo BangAuthor
- Mary John KoothattukulamAuthor
- Mary JonesAuthor
- Mary KingsleyAuthor
- Mary KinzieAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Mary Jo Salter?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.