Occult Power
of the Alphabet

Gregory Orr grew up in the Hudson Valley, where traumatic childhood incidents forged writing as an act of survival. The author of nine collections of poetry, he is a master of short, lyric free verse. He wrote the memoir The Blessing and three books of essays, including Poetry as Survival. A professor of English at the University of Virginia since 1975, Orr lives in Charlottesville with his wife and daughters.

Photograph by Trisha Orr.