Gregory Orr is the author of more than ten collections of poems, including, most recently, The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write. He is also the author of several volumes of essays, criticism, and memoir, including Poetry as Survival and A Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for The Blessing, Orr was the founder and director of the MFA Program in Writing at the University of Virginia, and the longtime poetry editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
When Gregory Orr was twelve years old, he shot and killed his brother in a hunting accident. Guilt weighed on him throughout a childhood split between the rural Hudson Valley and jungles of Haiti. But eventually his experiences led him to understand that art, particularly poetry, could work as a powerful source of healing.
