Poet and Founder: Professor Emerita Brenda Hillman taught poetry for nearly four decades at Saint Mary’s and helped establish the MFA in Creative Writing program. Her latest collection of poetry is a finalist for the National Book Award. / Photo by Francis Tatem
WATCH: Professor Emerita Brenda Hillman Is a Finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry. Here She Explores ‘Teaching the Imagination’
Hillman’s new collection is “Still House in the Desert: An eco-contemplation.” She was honored as Saint Mary’s Professor of the Year in 2022–23. In this lecture as part of that honor, she reflects on decades of writing, teaching, and living.
When the National Book Awards announced the 2026 finalists in early October, among them was one of Saint Mary’s own: Professor Emerita Brenda Hillman, who taught poetry at Saint Mary’s from 1985 to 2023, helped found the MFA in Creative Writing Program, and was honored as the 2022–23 SMC Professor of the Year.
Hillman is among five finalists for the National Book Award for Poetry for her new collection, Still House in the Desert: An eco-contemplation. She was “thrilled” and “honored” to learn she was among the poets selected, Hillman tells the SMC NewsCenter. “It was a difficult book to write; it was written during the last years of my mother’s life and completed after her death. It concerns family homes in the twentieth century, childhood, mothers and children, forgiveness, survival and memory.”
Over the decades, Hillman has become a guiding voice in ecopoetics, a genre that wrestles with humanity’s fraught relationship to the natural world. She has published numerous collections and books and received multiple accolades. Her 2013 collection, Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and her 2018 collection, Extra Hidden Life, Among the Days, received the Northern California Book Award.
In the spring of 2023, as is tradition, Hillman gave a Professor of the Year lecture—open to both the SMC community as well as those beyond interested in hearing from this important voice in American poetry. The recognition coincided with Hillman’s retirement from teaching, and the lecture—“Teaching the Imagination: Some Confessions, Micro-tools, and Party Favors”—reflects on decades of writing, teaching, and living. As we celebrate Hillman’s recognition, we invite you to watch the full lecture and see the mind of this writer at work.
Winners of the National Book Awards will be announced on November 18.
