Poetry Path: Mark Doty

Mark Doty was born in 1953 in Maryville, Tennessee. He has published nine collections of poetry, including National Book Award-winning Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins, 2008), and four volumes of nonfiction. Doty’s most recent publication is What is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life (W.W. Norton, 2020), a fusion of memoir, criticism, and essay.

Photo by Daniel Terna

Mark Doty, excerpt from “Atlantis” from Atlantis. Copyright © 2009 by Mark Doty. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

The Poetry Path is made possible through a partnership with Battery Park City Authority, partners in design and fabrication of the Poetry Path, with additional support from our Outreach Partner, Goldman Sachs. Special thanks to the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation for funding the Poetry Path planning process, and to the Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation for supporting Poetry Path educational initiatives for youth and children.