Ellen Bryant Voigt

Ellen Bryant Voigt, (May 9, 1943 – October 23, 2025), was an American poet. She served as the Poet Laureate of Vermont 1999–2002.

Biography Voigt was born May 9, 1943, in Danville, Virginia. She grew up in Chatham, Virginia, graduated from Converse College, and received an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. She taught at M.I.T. and Goddard College, where in 1976 she developed and directed the nation's first low-residency M.F.A. in Creative Writing program. Since 1981 she taught in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers.

She published seven collections of poetry and a collection of craft essays. Her poetry collections Shadow of Heaven (2002) and Messenger (2007) were finalists for the National Book Award and Kyrie (1995) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Messenger was also a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. Her poetry has been published in several national publications. She served as the Poet Laureate of Vermont for four years and in 2003 was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In 2015, Voigt was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Her latest collection is Collected Poems (2023).

She was married to Francis (Fran) Voigt, an administrator at Goddard College, until his death in 2018. Their two children are Dudley and Will Voigt. She resided in Cabot, Vermont, and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Voigt died in Berlin, Vermont, on October 23, 2025, at age 82.