Robert B. Shaw

Born in 1947, Robert B. Shaw is an American poet, critic, and teacher. He studied at Harvard University, where he worked with Robert Lowell, and later earned a PhD from Yale University. His writing has been praised for being plainspoken, formally skillful, and alert to the strange, telling details of daily life.

Shaw is the author of multiple poetry collections, including Solving for X, which won the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, as well as critical works such as Blank Verse: A Guide to Its History and Use. Alongside his poems, he has written literary criticism and essays on poetry and poetic form.

He taught for many years at Mount Holyoke College, where he served as the Emily Dickinson Professor of English before retiring in 2016. Across both his teaching and writing, he has built a reputation as a thoughtful, accessible voice in contemporary poetry.