CABOT – Ellen Bryant Voigt was born May 9, 1943, and raised on her family’s farm in Chatham, Va. The middle child of a school teacher and mail carrier, she grew up near a large, extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Ellen showed an early talent for the piano, earning her a scholarship to the music school at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C. But it was during a summer job at a resort in Blowing Rock, N.C., that her interest in poetry was sparked and she changed her major to English, graduating from Converse in 1964 and going on to earn an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
In her first semester at Iowa, she met Francis Voigt (from Oskaloosa, Iowa) at a mixer for dorm counselors. Fran, despite his good looks, failed to make a good impression, but eventually, he did get her to go out with him, and they were married less than a year later on September 5, 1965.
Tempted by advertisements for inexpensive farmhouses and land in rural Vermont, they moved to central Vermont in 1969 when Fran took a job at Goddard College. They found themselves in the middle of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and it was there they decided to put down their roots.
Goddard College attracted an unusual mix of artists and intellectuals interested in creating unorthodox, experimental, and alternative educational programs that inspired Ellen to co-found and direct a low-residency MFA program, the first of its kind, which would set the standard for the low-residency program of graduate study throughout the United States.
She taught in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College for nearly 40 years, following its move from Goddard in 1981. She also held teaching positions at Iowa Wesleyan College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2013, Ellen was the visiting poet at Smith College and was also a popular and frequent faculty member at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Ripton. She was the poet laureate of Vermont from 1999 to 2002 and served as a chancellor for the Academy of American Poets.
Ellen supported herself throughout college and graduate school playing the piano in bars and lounges, accompanying singers, dance classes and even the synchronized swimming team at Converse. She continued to be an in-demand pianist in Vermont, finding like-minded musicians, as well as playing for Taste of Opera, Barre Opera House, Plainfield Opera House, Unadilla Theater, Larry Gordon, various choirs and the Cabot School musicals.
While in Iowa, Ellen was introduced to what became the extended Voigt family’s passion for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes football. This was just the beginning of what grew into a fervent interest in sports. She was a scrupulous scorekeeper for her son Will’s Cabot School sports teams, and later could be found in the stands for his Vermont Frost Heaves and the other teams he coached.
Both Ellen and Fran were deeply committed to Cabot School, which continued long after their children had graduated. Ellen and two other Cabot parents created the Cabot Enrichment Program, tapping community experts to offer a wide array of experiences from ice fishing to photography. In addition to their enduring involvement in the community, Ellen and Fran co-founded New England Culinary Institute with John Dranow and Louise Glück, which changed the food landscape throughout Vermont and beyond.
Ellen was the author of nine poetry collections, including “Collected Poems” (W. W. Norton, 2023); “Headwaters” (W. W. Norton, 2013); “Messenger: New and Selected Poems, 1976–2006” (W. W. Norton, 2007), a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, “Kyrie” (W. W. Norton, 1995), a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award in 1995, “The Lotus Flowers” (W. W. Norton, 1987); and her debut, “Claiming Kin” (Wesleyan University Press, 1976).
Ellen also published two books on the craft of poetry, “The Flexible Lyric” (University of Georgia Press, 2011) and “The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song” (Graywolf Press, 2009). With Heather McHugh, she coedited the anthology “Hammer and Blaze: A Gathering of Contemporary American Poets” (University of Georgia Press, 2002). With Gregory Orr, she co-edited the essay collection “Poets Teaching Poets: Self and the World” (University of Michigan Press, 1996), a volume to which she also contributed.
Ellen’s other honors include the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s O. B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize, and fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. In 2015, she received a MacArthur Fellowship.
Ellen had a stroke in 2018, following the death of Fran after a long illness. Through her incredible determination and strength, she defied and amazed the medical experts by making a remarkable recovery; embracing daily exercise and rehab, publishing her final volume, working on her audiobook, giving readings around the country, spending cherished time with family and friends, doing every crossword puzzle she could get her hands on, and watching a lot of basketball. She spent the last seven years living with her daughter Dudley and dividing their time between Cabot and St. Paul, Minn.
Ellen Bryant Voigt died on October 23, 2025, and was predeceased by her parents, Lloyd and Missouri Bryant, and her husband Fran. She is survived by her sister Joan Shelton, brother L.G. Bryant, daughter Dudley, her son Will (Sabrina), her three grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. A celebration of her life is being planned for April.
