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In 1979 Jane Hirshfield received lay ordination in Soto Zen at the San Francisco Zen Center. Thirty-eight years later she stood on a stage at the March for Science in Washington and read a poem about scientific information disappearing from government websites. Between and after those two moments came ten books of poetry, from Alaya (1982) to The Asking (2023), two books of essays on how poems work, and translations of women poets from the Japanese court. This guide covers every collection in the order it was published, everything else she has written, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 poetry collections · 2 books of essays · Female authors · 1982–2023 · Updated September 2026
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Quick answer
Jane Hirshfield has published ten books of poetry, from Alaya (1982) to The Asking: New and Selected Poems (2023), as well as two books of essays, Nine Gates (1997) and Ten Windows (2015), and four books translating and collecting poets from the past. The Asking is the best place to start: it gathers poems from all her earlier collections and adds thirty-one new ones. Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001), After (2006) and The Beauty (2015) were finalists, shortlisted or longlisted for major prizes.
Watch: Jane Hirshfield on the power of poetry
Quick facts about Jane Hirshfield
- Born
- 24 February 1953, New York City
- Education
- Princeton University (BA, 1973), in the first graduating class to include women
- Zen
- Lay ordination in Soto Zen at the San Francisco Zen Center, 1979
- Lives
- The San Francisco Bay Area
- Poetry
- 10 collections, from Alaya (1982) to The Asking (2023)
- Essays
- Nine Gates (1997) and Ten Windows (2015)
- Translations
- The Ink Dark Moon, with Mariko Aratani; Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems, with Robert Bly
- Prize lists
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (Given Sugar, Given Salt); T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist (After); National Book Award longlist (The Beauty)
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship (1985); Academy of American Poets Fellowship (2004); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019); Zhongkun International Poetry Award (2024)
- Also
- Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, 2012–2017; founder of Poets for Science (2017)
All 10 Jane Hirshfield Poetry Collections, in Order
Alaya
Her first collection, published in the Quarterly Review of Literature Poetry Series in Princeton, nine years after she graduated from Princeton University and three years after her lay ordination at the San Francisco Zen Center.
Read it last, if you can find a copy. It is interesting mostly for what came after.
— LisanneOf Gravity & Angels
Her second collection. Many of its poems turn to the natural world and to animals, questioning how much space people take up at the expense of everything else, a move that runs through her work from here on. It won a silver medal at the California Book Awards.
Read it for the animals. This is where she first starts looking at the world from outside the human point of view.
— LisanneThe October Palace
Her first book with HarperCollins, published while she was teaching creative writing at the University of San Francisco. It carries on the nature poems of Of Gravity & Angels, again using the animal world to unsettle a human-centred view of things.
A good second book after The Asking: you will recognise the voice, and watch it still finding its shape.
— LisanneThe Lives of the Heart
Published in the same year as her first book of essays, Nine Gates. It includes “Three Times My Life Has Opened”, one of the poems she later carried into her new and selected poems, The Asking.
Read it slowly and out loud. It is the most openly passionate of her early books.
— LisanneGiven Sugar, Given Salt
Poems on identity, ageing and death, on what both closeness and solitude give and take, and on the passing of time, often approached through small things: a button, the role of habit, the slipperiness of sleep. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. “Red Berries” comes from this book.
If you want to own one of her single collections, make it this one or The Beauty. The subjects are small, and none of them stay small.
— LisanneAfter
The book that introduced two forms she has used ever since: “assays”, longer meditative accountings, and “pebbles”, very short poems modelled on Zbigniew Herbert's poem “Pebble”. It was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and named a best book of 2006 by The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Financial Times.
The one for people who think they do not like poetry. Most of the pebbles are a few lines long, and they stay with you for days.
— LisanneCome, Thief
Her first book with Knopf, and a finalist for the PEN USA Poetry Award. Reviewing it in The Washington Post, Steven Ratiner placed her among the modern masters and compared her fusion of style and outlook to the great poets of the Tang Dynasty. It includes “My Luck”, a forerunner of the “My” poems in The Beauty.
Read it once you already know her voice. It is quieter than After and more personal than Ledger.
— LisanneThe Beauty
It opens with a run of “My” poems, among them “My Skeleton”, “My Corkboard”, “My Species” and “My Weather”, that use ordinary materials to ask where a self begins and ends. It was longlisted for the National Book Award and named a best book of 2015 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her second book of essays, Ten Windows, came out the same year.
The best single collection to start with. The “My” poems at the front teach you how to read everything that follows.
— LisanneLedger
A book of personal, ecological and political reckoning. It opens with a poem that refuses the excuse that we did not see what was happening, and goes on to the crises of refugees, justice and climate, alongside quieter poems of doubt and contentment.
Read it when the news is too much. It does not console you, but it refuses to look away, and somehow that helps.
— LisanneThe Asking: New and Selected Poems
Thirty-one new poems together with a selection from all her earlier books. The title comes from the close of one of the new poems. It was published in the United States by Knopf in 2023 and in the UK by Bloodaxe Books in 2024, the year she received the Zhongkun International Poetry Award.
Start here. Four decades of her work in one volume, and thirty-one new poems on top.
— LisanneJane Hirshfield's Best-Known Books
Three of her collections reached the shortlists and longlists of major prizes. Add her new and selected poems and her first book of essays, and you have the five books below.
- Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001) — a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Read the entry →
- After (2006) — shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; the first of the pebbles. Read the entry →
- The Beauty (2015) — longlisted for the National Book Award. Read the entry →
- The Asking (2023) — her new and selected poems, and the one-volume way in. Read the entry →
- Nine Gates (1997) — her essays on the craft of poetry. See the full list →
Where to Start with Jane Hirshfield
Her books do not form a series, so there is no wrong order. What matters is what you want from poetry. This is where I would send you.
If you read only one
→ The Asking: New and Selected Poems (2023).
If you want one collection as she wrote it
→ The Beauty (2015), or Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001).
If you think you do not like poetry
→ After (2006), for the pebbles: some are only a few lines long.
If climate and justice are on your mind
→ Ledger (2020).
If you want to understand how a poem works
→ Nine Gates (1997), then Ten Windows (2015).
If you love Japanese poetry
→ The Ink Dark Moon (1990), her translations of two women poets of the Japanese court.
If you want more books like hers
→ My books by female authors list, or the best essays to read.
In What Order to Read Jane Hirshfield
You can read her collections in any order. If you want a path through them, this is the one I would take: begin with the overview, then go deep into three single books, then back to the beginning.
A reading path
1. The Asking (2023)
2. The Beauty (2015)
3. After (2006)
4. Ledger (2020)
5. Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001)
6. The early books, from Of Gravity & Angels (1988) to The Lives of the Heart (1997)
Alongside the poems
Nine Gates (1997) with the early books; Ten Windows (2015) with The Beauty, which appeared the same year.
Everything Else Jane Hirshfield Has Written: The Full List
The poetry collections are the heart of it. This is the rest: two books of essays, her translations and collections of poets from the past, the small-press chapbooks and a UK selection, and an anthology she guest-edited. The books I would point you to first sit at the top of each form, with where to buy them.
Open a form with the + to see every book in it.
Essays
2
2 books · 1997–2015
Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (1997)
Her first book of essays on the craft of poetry.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World (2015)
Her second book of essays.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Translations and world poets
4
4 books · 1990–2011
Translated with Mariko Aratani.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women (1994)
Edited by Hirshfield.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems (2004)
With Robert Bly.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
- 2011The Heart of Haikuan e-book on Matsuo Bashō and the beginnings of haiku, named a Best Kindle Single
Chapbooks and selections
3
3 books · 2004–2014
- 2004Pebbles & Assaysa small-press chapbook from Brooding Heron Press
- 2005Each Happiness Ringed by Lions: Selected Poemspublished in the UK by Bloodaxe Books
- 2014minus/my-nessa chapbook from Missing Links Press
As guest editor
1
1 book · 2024
- 2024Best Literary Translations 2024the first volume of the anthology, published by Deep Vellum
How Jane Hirshfield Writes: Pebbles and Assays
Hirshfield took lay ordination in Soto Zen at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1979, and critics have been calling her a Buddhist poet ever since. She has said in interviews that the label frustrates her. For her, studying Zen is simply studying what it means to be a person who pays attention, and that attention is what her poems are made of: a button, a skeleton, a mushroom's smell in a kitchen.
In After (2006) she introduced two forms she has used in every book since. The “pebbles” are very short poems, modelled on Zbigniew Herbert's poem “Pebble”. The “assays” are longer, meditative poems that take stock of a single subject, such as spareness.
And she has kept poetry close to science. In 2013 she was visiting artist in the neuroscience department at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2017 she founded Poets for Science and read “On the Fifth Day”, her poem about the removal of scientific information from federal websites, as a main speaker at the March for Science.
Frequently asked questions about Jane Hirshfield's books
How many books has Jane Hirshfield written?
Jane Hirshfield has published ten books of poetry, two books of essays, Nine Gates (1997) and Ten Windows (2015), and four books translating and collecting poets from the past, including The Ink Dark Moon and Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems.
What are Jane Hirshfield's poetry books in order?
In order of publication: Alaya (1982), Of Gravity & Angels (1988), The October Palace (1994), The Lives of the Heart (1997), Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001), After (2006), Come, Thief (2011), The Beauty (2015), Ledger (2020), The Asking: New and Selected Poems (2023).
Which Jane Hirshfield book should I read first?
The Asking: New and Selected Poems (2023). It brings together poems from all her earlier collections and adds thirty-one new ones. If you would rather start with a single collection, try The Beauty (2015).
What is Jane Hirshfield's latest book?
Her most recent book is The Asking: New and Selected Poems, published by Knopf in 2023 and in the UK by Bloodaxe Books in 2024.
Is Jane Hirshfield a Buddhist poet?
She received lay ordination in Soto Zen at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1979, and her poems are often read in the light of that practice. But she has said in interviews that she is frustrated by being labelled a Buddhist poet, and her subjects range widely, from love and ageing to science, climate and justice.
What are Jane Hirshfield's books of essays?
Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (1997) and Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World (2015). Both are about the craft of poetry and how poems work on their readers.
What is The Ink Dark Moon?
The Ink Dark Moon is Hirshfield's translation, with Mariko Aratani, of love poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, two women poets of the ancient court of Japan.
What are Jane Hirshfield's pebbles?
Pebbles are very short poems that Hirshfield modelled on Zbigniew Herbert's poem “Pebble”. They first appeared in After (2006), and every collection since has included some.
What awards has Jane Hirshfield received?
Her collections were a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Academy of American Poets, the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Prize, and in 2024 the Zhongkun International Poetry Award, as its first English-language and first woman recipient. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
What is Poets for Science?
Poets for Science is an online and travelling project exploring the connection between poetry and science, which Hirshfield founded in 2017 with the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, alongside the March for Science.
Where did Jane Hirshfield study?
She graduated from Princeton University in 1973, in the first graduating class to include women who had entered as freshmen, and went on to study at the San Francisco Zen Center.
Who is Jane Hirshfield?
Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist and translator, born in New York City in 1953. She is the author of ten books of poetry, most recently The Asking (2023), a former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Footnotes
- Jane Hirshfield — Wikipedia
- Jane Hirshfield — Poetry Foundation
- About Jane Hirshfield — Academy of American Poets
- Jane Hirshfield — American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- The Asking — Penguin Random House
- The Beauty — Penguin Random House
- Recipes for a Mortal World: On The Beauty — Kenyon Review
- The Beauty — Harvard Review
- Jane Hirshfield — Poetry International
- Hirshfield, Jane 1953- — Encyclopedia.com
Bibliography last verified 10 September 2026.
Nothing here was suggested by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“For me, studying Zen is simply studying what it is to be a human being who pays attention.”
— Jane Hirshfield, on Zen and poetry, quoted by Poetry International
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