Margot Schilpp's first collection of poems, The World's Last Night, was published by Carnegie Mellon in 2001. Her work has appeared widely in journals, including The Southern Review, Denver Quarterly, Chelsea, and Shenandoah. While earning her M.F.A. at the University of Utah, she edited the literary journal, Quarterly West.

About Laws of My Nature:

"Margot Schilpp wants. That is common among poets. But, Ms. Schilpp is unusual in that she renders desire and loss always from the vantage point of love. One of her lines says it all: 'Consider the branch falling, but consider it from the tree. . . .' This statement is typical of her work, which lives close to the natural world with its swelling of sap and blood. In this book, Ms. Schilpp is operating on two fronts—a yearning which only words can fill, and a passion for the lived life that yearning implies. And, in poem after poem, she is in headlong pursuit of both."
—Lola Haskins

"The abiding interest of these poems are memory and the difficulty of making a self. I read this book as an emotional narrative, the detail of the poet's life less important than the spirit in which they are rendered. It's Schilpp's lyrical imagination that I'm most drawn to here: I can feel her, in poem after poem, creating a reality that is shaped most of all by beauty. The poems succeed because they show her struggling to redeem her past. It's a testament to her ability as a poet that I know myself better having read this book. These are beautiful, quietly powerful poems."
—Bob Hicok

Other poems by Margot Schilpp in Verse Daily:
May 25, 2003:  "Vanishing Point"  "The way an island holds back..."
May 5, 2003:  "Manifesto"  "I know that dying is how we escape..."
July 4, 2002:  "Laws of My Nature"  "Obviously, the roosters are in league / with morning..."