Ingrid Wendt
Ingrid Wendt was born and raised in Aurora, Illinois, of first- and second-generation immigrant parents. Chosen by William Stafford, her first book of poems, Moving the House, a title both literal and figurative, appeared in BOA Editions’ New Poets of America Series. Her next three books won the Oregon Book Award, the Yellowglen Award, and the Editions Prize. Co-editor of the Oregon poetry anthology From Here We Speak and of the anthology In Her Own Image: Women Working in the Arts, Wendt has been a visiting writer for over 30 years, at all educational levels, including the MFA program of Antioch, Los Angeles, and as a three-time Fulbright Professor in Germany. A popular workshop presenter and keynote speaker, at home and abroad, her book of poetry prompts—Starting with Little Things: A Guide to Writing Poetry in the Classroom—is now in its sixth printing.
A classical pianist, organist, and choral singer by training and avocation, Wendt’s work has three times been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, turned into choral and instrumental music, and translated into German, Italian, and Spanish. Her many honors include the Distinguished Achievement Award from the president of her alma mater, Cornell College; induction into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame; fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission and Literary Arts; several Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations; and residencies from the Kulturreferat München, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Bellagio/Rockefeller Foundation, Hedgebrook, Playa, and more. Since the publication of her last book, Evensong, poems have appeared in POETRY, American Poetry Review, Terrain, About Place, CALYX, Cutthroat, among others, and received an honorable mention in both the 2025 Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize in Poetry, judged by Alicia Ostriker, and the 2025 River Heron Editors’ Prize. Married for 48 years to the late poet and writer Ralph Salisbury, she lives in Eugene, Oregon, sings and travels with the Eugene Concert Choir (most recently in Berlin, Germany), and volunteers as an exhibit interpreter at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.
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Poem from Keeping It All Afloat
HAPPINESS
after a poem by William Stafford
Out of the darkness the angelfish glides,
Big as a dinner plate. Just a shadow, really, but the tips
Of her wings, even in silhouette, are unmistakable.
And in the very moment I see her, checking me out,
She melts again into the dark.
I’ve been looking for her
For over a month, in this same lagoon
Where years ago there used to be so many more fish.
Some morning soon I’ll come again, earlier.
The water will be clearer.
And I know where she hides.
