Brenda L. Hillman

Hillman is known for poems that draw on elements of found texts and document, personal meditation, observation, and literary theory. Often described as sensuous and luminescent, Hillman's poetry investigates the possibilities of form and voice, while remaining grounded in topics such as geology, the environment, politics, family, and spirituality. Her early poetry collections received critical praise for their transfiguration of experience. Her upbringing in a deeply religious Baptist family surfaces in many of her poems, especially those that appear in Loose Sugar and the California mission poems of Cascadia. She is also a member of the permanent faculties of Squaw Valley Community of Writers and Napa Valley Writers' Conference.