From its first appearance in print, the poetry of Mary Jo Salter has displayed a technical virtuosity and a fineness of perception unusual in a young poet. While much of her poetry deals with domestic concerns, she is also frequently successful with larger themes, such as time, mortality, and war.

Mary Jo Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on 15 August 1954. Her father, Albert Gregory Salter, was an advertising executive and has yet to appear frequently in her poems. Such is not the case, however, with the poet's mother; an artist, Lorima Paradise Salter plays a substantial role, especially in her daughter's second book, Unfinished Painting (1989). The title of the volume refers to one of Lorima Salter's paintings.

After a childhood and youth spent primarily in Detroit and Baltimore, Mary Jo Salter earned her B.A. at Harvard, from which she graduated cum laude in 1976 and where she...