Contemporary+Poet-+Mary+Karr

**Mary Karr**

Mary Karr was born in 1955 in Groves, Texas. She is a poet and memoirist as well as a critically acclaimed author. Karr's father worked in an oil refinery while her mother was an amateur artist and business owner. Karr's sister, two years her elder, is a key figure in her memoirs. Throughout her life, Karr experiences mental illness, violence, neglect, and substance abuse. Her mother suffered from mental instability. Her father was a heavy drinker and a storyteller, an oil refinery worker. “Sinners Welcome,” a third in her “Liars’ Club” memoirs, continues her story into adolescence and adulthood. It includes meditative poems on Karr’s recovery from alcoholism and her new found sense of faith. Karr developed an early interest in literature and studied it often. Upon graduation from Port Neches-Groves High School, she traveled with a group of friends to Los Angeles, where she immersed herself in the lifestyle of the California hippie culture. Later that year, she enrolled in Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, but left school after two years to travel. Her political involvement in the anti-apartheid movement led her to meet African American poet Etheridge Knight who became an important influence on the development of her poetry. Karr eventually entered graduate school to study creative writing, and earned an M.F.A. from Goddard College in 1979. Her first publication was a poem that appeared in Mother Jones magazine. In 1983 she married poet Michael Milburn, with whom she had a son, but the couple divorced in 1991. In the 90s, Karr dated David Foster Wallace. She has published several books of poetry, including “Abacus” and “The Devil’s Tour.” She reached her fame when she published her memoirs, “The Liar’s Club,” in 1995. She is a controversial figure in the American poetry "establishment," thanks to her Pushcart-award winning essay, "Against Decoration." Karr’s poetry is frequently described as “unsentimental” and “unsparing” in its evocation of painful truths, often about their author. Because of her rediscovery of faith, she often incorporates Christ or religion in her works.

Works Cited "Mary Karr - Bio." //Mary Karr - Bio//. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2013. . "Mary Karr." //The Poetry Foundation//. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2013. . "The Paris Review." //Paris Review//. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2013. .