Jumping into the American River, The Collected Books: Volume II

Author: Mary Norbert Korte Editors: Iris Cushing, Jason Weiss and Mary Catherine Kinniburgh Publisher: Argos Books (2025) Mary Norbert Korte (1934–2022) grew up on Mystic Street in Oakland, California. She was drawn to poetry at a young age. At 17, she took nun’s vows with the Dominican Catholic Sisterhood, and earned her bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Latin while in the convent. Korte attended the 1965 Berkeley Poetry Conference, encountering Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Jack Spicer and Lew Welch, among other poets. This foray into San Francisco Renaissance poetry altered the course of Korte’s life. She befriended Michael McClure, David Meltzer, Spicer, and Welch, and developed her own mystically-charged poetics. Korte’s first collection of poems, Hymn to the Gentle Sun, was published by Robert Hawley’s Oyez Press in 1967. The following year, Korte formally left the Dominican order and embarked on the lay life of the poet. From 1973 onward, Korte lived in Mendocin