Do many astronauts write poetry?

And an incredible array of poets are still writing about it today: Tracy K. Smith, Ben Lerner, Adrian Matejka, Brian Turner, Patricia Smith, and many more. Poets, it would ... Only six are in space right now (you can enjoy knowing how many people are up there right now with this handy app). read more

Apollo astronaut Alan Bean and Shuttle astronaut Nicole Stott are painters. In fact, while many astronauts have been photographers in space, Stott was the first to paint there. read more

Write anyway. Good writing comes with observing how others write, working on what you feel you need work on, and most importantly, practice, practice, practice. read more

In fact, while many astronauts have been photographers in space, Stott was the first to paint there. There are several poets, including W. H. Auden and Stanley Kunitz and more recently Ben Lerner, Tracy K. Smith, and myself, who’ve written poems about astronomy and space travel and even more who’ve incorporated references to the stars and other celestial goings-on into poems about other subjects. read more