On the Subject Of…

Rich's Cultural Influence as a Poet and Essayist

It would be hard to overstate Rich's influence as a cultural presence. There is no one whose poetry has spoken more eloquently for the oppressed and marginalized in America, no one who has more compassionately charted the course of individual human suffering across the horrifying and impersonal graph of recent history. Rich's extraordinary essays continue to be essential writings in the ongoing feminist struggle in this country and throughout the world.

St. John, David. "Brightening the Landscape," LosAngeles Times Book Review (25 February 1996): 5.