Gregory Orr

Gregory Orr is a noted American poet, essayist and teacher best known for his candid and heartfelt works about life and nature. He has written numerous poetry collections and has contributed to various literary anthologies, such as The Oxford Book of American Poetry. Orr has been praised for his frank and honest approach to writing, making him a beloved and celebrated author in the world of contemporary American poetry.

Born in 1947 in New York, Orr earned his bachelor's degree at Columbia University and went on to pursue his master's at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When he began writing poetry in the early seventies, Orr was heavily influenced by the Romanticism of Wordsworth, the introspection of William Carlos Williams and the spiritual intensity of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Orr's collections of poems—including Winter Essays, Fire to Fire and The River of the Hundred Restless Voices—are marked by his strong focus on emotions and his sensitive, lyrical writing style.

Orr's first published works, including Gathering the Bones and History’s Ruthless Cycles, dealt with questions of mortality and transience. His most renowned work, The Burning River, is a tour de force that explores the power of love and forgiveness thru the verses of a devastating plane crash. In this work, Orr has reimagined the myth of the phoenix, a creature that burns away its form and rises reborn from its ashes. As poignant an example of mythopoetics as Ovid’s Metamorphoses, The Burning River speaks to the power of transformation and the difficulty of letting go in life.

Orr has written extensively about nature and ecological consciousness, bringing a deep spirituality to his work. He has focused on areas such as the human relationship with trees, the relationships of animals to one another, and the solace of the natural world in an urban post-industrial environment. His meditative, searching style captures and illuminates the beauty of his subjects with a poetic insight.

Orr is a professor of English at the University of Virginia, and he has also served as professor of creative writing at Vermont's Middlebury College and at the City University of New York. In addition to his writing, Orr is a sought-after teacher and speaker, and he has delivered keynote addresses at numerous conferences and symposiums.

For over four decades now, Orr has shaped and shaped American poetry, offering us a “blazing reminder” of the power of the written word. His discerning poetic vision has earned him numerous accolades, including the National Book Award. Today, Orr remains a major figure in American literature and a firm believer in the transformative power of words, both spoken and written.