Jane Hirshfield is a poet, essayist and translator. She is the author of several volumes of poetry, including Come, Thief (2011), After (2006) and Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001), which was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Award.

She says that “a good poem takes something you already know as a human being and raises your ability to feel that to a higher degree.” She tells Bill that “almost all I know about being a human being has been deepened by the poems I’ve read. They’ve taught me how to be a human being.”

Read more about Hirshfield at the Poetry Foundation website.