This is a list of feminist poets. Historically, literature has been a male-dominated sphere, and any poetry written by a woman could be seen as feminist. Often, feminist poetry refers to that which was composed after the 1960s and the second-wave of the feminist movement.
Aâ€"D
- Kathy Acker (1947â€"1997), American experimental novelist, punk poet, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer
- Maya Angelou (1928â€"2014), American author and poet
- Elvia Ardalani (born 1963), Mexican poet, writer, and storyteller
- Margaret Atwood (born 1939), Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist and environmental activist
- Addie L. Ballou (1837â€"1916), American poet and suffragist
- Djuna Barnes (1892â€"1982), American modernist lesbian writer
- Aphra Behn (1640â€"1689), dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers
- Elizabeth Bishop (1911â€"1979), American poet and short-story writer
- Eavan Boland (born 1944), Irish poet
- Sophia Elisabet Brenner (1659â€"1730), Swedish writer, poet, feminist and salon hostess
- Olga Broumas (born 1949), Greek poet, living in the United States
- Lucille Clifton (1936â€"2010), American writer and educator
- Mary Collier (ca. 1688â€"1762), English poet
- H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886â€"1961), American poet, novelist and memoirist; known for her Imagist poetry
- Emily Dickinson (1830â€"1886), American poet
- Diane Di Prima (born 1934), American poet
- Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955), Scottish poet and playwright; first female and first Scottish Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
- Rachel Blau DuPlessis (born 1941), American poet and essayist, known as a feminist critic and scholar
Eâ€"K
- Fehmida Riaz (born 1946), Urdu writer, poet, and feminist of Pakistan
- Mary Eliza Fullerton (1868â€"1946), Australian feminist poet, short story writer, journalist and novelist
- Alice Fulton (born 1952), American author, poet
- Frances Dana Barker Gage (1808â€"1884), American writer, poet, reformer, feminist and abolitionist
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860â€"1935), American sociologist, author, poet and lecturer for social reform
- Judy Grahn (born 1940), American feminist, lesbian poet
- Barbara Guest (1920â€"2006), American poet, author
- Marilyn Hacker (born 1942), American poet, translator and critic
- Jane Eaton Hamilton (born 1954), Canadian poet, fiction writer, photographer, visual artist
- Gwen Harwood (1920â€"1995), Australian poet and librettist
- Allison Hedge Coke (born 1958), American/Canadian poet
- Lyn Hejinian (born 1941), American poet, essayist, translator and publisher
- Dorothy Hewett (1923â€"2002), Australian feminist poet, novelist, librettist and playwright
- Susan Howe (born 1937), American poet, scholar, essayist and critic; closely associated with the Language poets
- Kishwar Naheed (born 1940), Urdu poet from Pakistan known for her pioneering feminist poetry
- Carolyn Kizer (born 1925), Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet; noted for her feminist poetry
Lâ€"R
- Sue Lenier (born 1957), English poet and playwright
- Anna Maria Lenngren (1754â€"1817), Swedish writer, poet, feminist, translator and salonist
- Denise Levertov (1923â€"1997), British-born American poet
- Audre Lorde (1934â€"1992), Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist
- Mina Loy (1882â€"1966), artist, poet, playwright, novelist, Futurist, actress, Christian Scientist, designer of lamps, and bohemian
- Chris Mansell (born 1953), Australian poet and publisher
- Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892â€"1950), American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist
- Gabriela Mistral (Lucila Godoy Alcayaga) (1889â€"1957), Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist; first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Marianne Moore (1887â€"1972), American Modernist poet and writer
- Robin Morgan (born 1941), American poet, author, political theorist and activist, journalist, lecturer, and former child actor
- Eileen Myles (born 1949) American poet and writer, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and LGBT activist
- Lorine Niedecker (1903â€"1970), American poet; only woman associated with the Objectivist poets
- Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718â€"1763), Swedish poet, feminist and salon hostess
- Alice Notley (born 1945), American poet and feminist
- Alicia Ostriker (born 1937), American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry
- Grace Paley (1922â€"2007), American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist
- Sylvia Pankhurst (1882â€"1960), English suffragist, poet
- Dorothy Parker (1893â€"1967), American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
- Parveen Shakir (1952â€"1994), Urdu poet, teacher and a civil servant of the Government of Pakistan
- Sylvia Plath (1932â€"1963), American poet, novelist and short story writer
- Katha Pollitt (born 1949), American feminist poet, essayist and critic
- Qiu Jin (1875â€"1907), Chinese revolutionary, feminist and writer
- Adrienne Rich (1929â€"2012), American poet, essayist and feminist
- Dorothy Richardson (1873â€"1957), English novelist, poet, essayist and short story writer
- Lola Ridge (1873â€"1941), anarchist poet and an influential editor of avant-garde, feminist, and Marxist publications
- Ethel Rolt-Wheeler (1869â€"1958), English poet, author and journalist
- Christina Rossetti (1830â€"1894), English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems
- Muriel Rukeyser (1913â€"1980), American poet and political activist
Sâ€"Z
- Nandini Sahu (born 1973), Indian poet who writes in English
- Sonia Sanchez (born 1934), African American poet most often associated with the Black Arts Movement
- Sappho (fl. 6th century BC), Ancient Greek poet; one of the nine lyric poets
- Anne Sexton (1928â€"1974), American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse
- Jo Shapcott (born 1953), English poet, editor and lecturer
- Edith Sitwell (1887â€"1964), British poet and critic, eldest of the three literary Sitwells
- Stevie Smith (1902â€"1971), English poet and novelist
- Gertrude Stein (1874â€"1946), American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France
- Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938), Swiss-Argentine poet
- May Swenson (1913â€"1989), American poet and playwright
- Sara Teasdale (1884â€"1933), American lyrical poet
- Marina Tsvetaeva (1892â€"1941), Russian and Soviet poet
- Anne Waldman (born 1945), American poet
- Rosmarie Waldrop (born 1935), American poet, translator and publisher
- Alice Walker (born 1944), American author, poet, and activist
- Phyllis Webb (born 1927), Canadian poet and radio broadcaster
- Nellie Wong (born 1934), Chinese-American feminist poet
- Merle Woo (born 1941), Asian American teacher, poet and activist
- Judith Wright (1915â€"2000), Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights
- Elinor Wylie (1885â€"1928), American poet and novelist
- Halima Xudoyberdiyeva (born 1947), Uzbek poet; People's Poet of Uzbekistan
- Mitsuye Yamada (born 1923), Japanese American activist, feminist, essayist, poet, story writer, editor, and professor
References
