What the Living Do is her collection of poems written as an elegy for her brother John, who died of AIDS in 1989. She has also written The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The Good Thief, her first book, which was chosen by Margaret Atwood as the winner of the Open Competition of the National Poetry Series. Atwood described Howe's work as “poems of obsession that transcend their own dark roots.” She earned her MFA from Columbia University, and has worked as a reporter and a teacher. She is the 2012 state poet of New York, and now lives in New York City with her daughter. Not long ago, Howe gave a gorgeous and rare interview to Terry Gross on NPR's "Fresh Air" about living with loss, power, and vulnerability.