J. D. McClatchy, one of America’s notable men of letters, had his newest book, Plundered Hearts: New and Selected Poems, published in the spring. He had six earlier collections, including Hazmat (2003) which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also edited numerous books, among them The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry, Poems of the Sea, Love Speaks Its Name, and James Merrill’s Collected Prose and Collected Poems. In addition, McClatchy has written librettos for thirteen operas, including William Schuman’s A Question of Taste (premier 1989) and Ned Rorem’s Our Town (premier 2006). He has taught at a number of universities, UCLA and Johns Hopkins among them, and is now Professor of English at Yale, where he is editor of The Yale Review.

Update: Mr. McClatchy died in April 2018. We miss him dearly.