May Swenson was born in Logan, Utah. She earned a B.S. at Utah State University in 1939 and worked as an editor at New Directions Press between 1959 and 1966. She was a poet-in-residence at Purdue University in 1966-1967 and has been instructor in...

IN OTHER WORDS. New Poems, by May Swenson. Knopf. 133 pp. $16.95. Self - aught, May Swenson brings pure, simple fun to poetry of the highest and most complex order. Her poems are jungles of animal significance -- dense, flamboyant, orderly syntactical ecosystems...

Lesbian poet May Swenson did not deny her sexual orientation but refused the categorization of her work under lesbian poetry. A closer analysis of her work revealed that her themes were mostly on heterosexual relationships with touches of 20th century insights on female sexuality....

In the following excerpt from her Modern American Women Poets, Gould provides an overview of Swenson's life and career.

In the following essay, Russell compares Swenson to other women poets such as Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and Emily Dickinson and considers Swenson's refusal of the label "lesbian poet. "

In the following essay, Russell examines Swenson's poetry, focusing on the author's approach to and treatment of lesbian themes.