About the Poet/Scholar

A graduate of Smith College and New York University, Vinni Marie D’Ambrosio, Ph.D., is a poet, author, scholar, and translator whose work has appeared in anthologies, journals, and newspapers, with publications in the United States, Thailand, and Italy.

Her books include the poetry collections Life of Touching Mouths (New York University Press) and An Italian Morning (Waterside Press); Mexican Gothic, a long narrative poem about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with woodcuts by Karen Kunc (Blue Heron Press); and Eliot Possessed, a cultural study of T.S. Eliot’s youth (New York University Press). Her poem “Copper Beech” appears on a public memorial monument commissioned by New York City.

D’Ambrosio has given more than one hundred poetry readings throughout the United States and in Canada. Her honors include a poet-in-residency at San Diego State University, two fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and numerous prizes for her poems.

For twelve years, she directed poetry readings at the Brooklyn Museum. She also served as president of the T.S. Eliot Society in St. Louis and of Pen & Brush, Inc., in New York City. A Professor Emerita of the City University of New York, she also led a seminar in the poetry classics at the American Association of University Women in New York City.