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Midsummer Count: New and Selected Poems
Master craftsperson, renowned feminist poet and activist Robin Becker explores a number of themes in this bountiful selection of new and selected poems.
Midsummer Count collects the best work of Robin Becker, considered by many to be the foremost feminist poet of her generation. With selections from each of her previously published books and nearly thirty new poems, readers enter Becker’s lifelong exploration of childhood, animals, cherished places, complex friendships, and romantic intimacy. A life-affirming current yokes these narratives across time, even as a sister’s early suicide haunts the decades. In blank and free verse, in couplets, quatrains, and sonnets, the poet wrestles formal tensions, creating a present-day idiom for beauty, grief, and compassion. Lovers of Becker’s work and those new to it will find in Midsummer Count a master class by one of today’s most dynamic poets.
Midsummer Count collects the best work of Robin Becker, considered by many to be the foremost feminist poet of her generation. With selections from each of her previously published books and nearly thirty new poems, readers enter Becker’s lifelong exploration of childhood, animals, cherished places, complex friendships, and romantic intimacy. A life-affirming current yokes these narratives across time, even as a sister’s early suicide haunts the decades. In blank and free verse, in couplets, quatrains, and sonnets, the poet wrestles formal tensions, creating a present-day idiom for beauty, grief, and compassion. Lovers of Becker’s work and those new to it will find in Midsummer Count a master class by one of today’s most dynamic poets.
162 pages, Paperback
Published February 24, 2026
About the author
Robin Becker
30 books14 followersRobin Becker (born 1951) is an American poet, critic, feminist, and professor.
Becker earned a BA and MA at Boston University. She taught for many years at the MIT before returning to Pennsylvania in 1994, where she is Liberal Arts Research Professor of English and Women's Studies at Penn State.
Becker is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Tiger Heron and Domain of Perfect Affection. Her All American Girl won the 1996 Lambda Literary Award in Poetry. In 2000 she was honored with Penn State's George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, and she served as Penn State Laureate in 2010-11. Other honours include fellowships from The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies of the City University of New York, The William Steeple Davis Foundation, the Mary Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Becker’s interest in narrative springs from her family background, including a childhood spent listening to her grandmother’s stories, learning from her the nuances of storytelling and her family’s history in Ukraine. Becker was also greatly influenced by the women writers whose poetry was available in the 1970s, including Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, and Susan Griffin. Poet Stephen Dunn regards Becker as achieving “what may be one of the early twenty first century’s most difficult accomplishments—to write a credible poetry of affirmation. In the doing, she doesn’t pretty up the world. Rather, she finds language that embraces our dualities, our many-selved presences, regularly demonstrating her kind of perfect affection.”
Becker earned a BA and MA at Boston University. She taught for many years at the MIT before returning to Pennsylvania in 1994, where she is Liberal Arts Research Professor of English and Women's Studies at Penn State.
Becker is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Tiger Heron and Domain of Perfect Affection. Her All American Girl won the 1996 Lambda Literary Award in Poetry. In 2000 she was honored with Penn State's George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, and she served as Penn State Laureate in 2010-11. Other honours include fellowships from The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies of the City University of New York, The William Steeple Davis Foundation, the Mary Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Becker’s interest in narrative springs from her family background, including a childhood spent listening to her grandmother’s stories, learning from her the nuances of storytelling and her family’s history in Ukraine. Becker was also greatly influenced by the women writers whose poetry was available in the 1970s, including Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, and Susan Griffin. Poet Stephen Dunn regards Becker as achieving “what may be one of the early twenty first century’s most difficult accomplishments—to write a credible poetry of affirmation. In the doing, she doesn’t pretty up the world. Rather, she finds language that embraces our dualities, our many-selved presences, regularly demonstrating her kind of perfect affection.”
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 24, 2026
Midsummer Count is a beautifully crafted and emotionally resonant collection that showcases the depth, intelligence, and enduring artistry of Robin Becker’s poetic voice. Bringing together selections from across her career alongside powerful new work, this volume feels both retrospective and urgently present, offering readers a sweeping meditation on memory, grief, intimacy, identity, resilience, and the passage of time.
Becker’s poetry carries a remarkable balance of emotional precision and lyrical restraint. Whether writing about childhood, friendship, romantic connection, animals, or the quiet complexities of ordinary life, her work consistently reveals an extraordinary sensitivity to human experience. The poems move with clarity and grace while still carrying profound emotional weight beneath the surface.
One of the collection’s most striking achievements is the way recurring themes echo across decades of writing. Personal history, feminist consciousness, compassion, loss, and survival intertwine seamlessly, creating a sense of continuity that gives the collection exceptional depth and cohesion. The lingering presence of familial grief adds emotional gravity while never overwhelming the collection’s life-affirming spirit.
Formally, Becker demonstrates masterful versatility. The movement between free verse, sonnets, couplets, quatrains, and other poetic structures highlights both technical command and artistic confidence. Each poem feels carefully shaped without losing emotional immediacy, allowing beauty and vulnerability to coexist naturally on the page.
Midsummer Count is more than a selected poems collection. It is a portrait of a lifelong artistic journey from one of contemporary poetry’s most respected feminist voices. Both longtime admirers and new readers will find this collection rich with insight, compassion, intelligence, and unforgettable language.
Elegant, reflective, and deeply human, Midsummer Count stands as an essential contribution to contemporary poetry.
Becker’s poetry carries a remarkable balance of emotional precision and lyrical restraint. Whether writing about childhood, friendship, romantic connection, animals, or the quiet complexities of ordinary life, her work consistently reveals an extraordinary sensitivity to human experience. The poems move with clarity and grace while still carrying profound emotional weight beneath the surface.
One of the collection’s most striking achievements is the way recurring themes echo across decades of writing. Personal history, feminist consciousness, compassion, loss, and survival intertwine seamlessly, creating a sense of continuity that gives the collection exceptional depth and cohesion. The lingering presence of familial grief adds emotional gravity while never overwhelming the collection’s life-affirming spirit.
Formally, Becker demonstrates masterful versatility. The movement between free verse, sonnets, couplets, quatrains, and other poetic structures highlights both technical command and artistic confidence. Each poem feels carefully shaped without losing emotional immediacy, allowing beauty and vulnerability to coexist naturally on the page.
Midsummer Count is more than a selected poems collection. It is a portrait of a lifelong artistic journey from one of contemporary poetry’s most respected feminist voices. Both longtime admirers and new readers will find this collection rich with insight, compassion, intelligence, and unforgettable language.
Elegant, reflective, and deeply human, Midsummer Count stands as an essential contribution to contemporary poetry.
Displaying 1 of 1 review