Carolyn Louise Forché has built a reputation as a poet interested in chronicling injustices throughout the world. Her writing gives voice to the silenced and the oppressed and serves as a reminder of historical atrocities such as the Holocaust. Born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 28, 1950, to Michael Joseph and Louise Nada Blackford Sidlosky, Forché was raised in a city torn by racial tension and grinding poverty, facts that helped shape her world-view. Forché's grandmother, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, inspired her granddaughter with her refusal to adopt American ways and encouraged her to learn about experiences of people from other countries and cultures. Forché was also heavily influenced by Our Lady of Sorrows School, which she attended for twelve years, and its emphasis on morality and social issues.

In 1972, Forché graduated from Michigan State University and, in 1975, she received a master of...