Honor Moore is well known for her work as a playwright, memoirist, editor, and poet. She has edited selections of Amy Lowell’s poems, contemporary plays by American women, and poems from Russia, and is the author of several poetry collections, including Memoir and Red Shoes; two memoirs, The White Blackbird: A Life of the Painter Margarett Sargent by Her Granddaughter and The Bishop’s Daughter; the play Mourning Pictures; and numerous essays and reviews.

She has said that her poems are “charts of where [she is], psychically and spiritually,” and her poetry has been acclaimed for its ability to be precise and emotionally complex, lyrical and vivid. Poet Fanny Howe likens her poems to paintings, praising her ability to create pleasures that “cross all such boundaries” between the visual world and the written word. Her prose has also drawn much praise, and created some controversy, for its direct treatment of sexuality, faith, family, and coming of age—central topics in much of her writing in all genres.

Besides Moore’s assorted roles as a writer, she is also the founder of the Poetry Series at Manhattan Theatre Club, and has taught at NYU, Columbia, the New School, Wesleyan University, and elsewhere. She has served on the board of directors of the PEN American Center, Poets and Writers, Inc., the Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Jenny McKean Moore Fund for Writers. She lives in New York City.