Helen Vendler

| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Laguna Niguel, California, U.S. | death_cause = | region = | nationality = US | other_names = | occupation = Professor | period = | known_for = | title = | boards = | spouse = Zeno Vendler | children = David Vendler | website = | education = | alma_mater = Emmanuel College (AB)
Harvard University (PhD) | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences = | era = | discipline = English | sub_discipline = Poetics | workplaces = Harvard University
Boston University
Cornell University
Swarthmore College
Smith College | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | main_interests = Emily Dickinson, George Herbert, John Keats, Seamus Heaney, Wallace Stevens, W. B. Yeats, William Shakespeare | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = | awards = American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1993 }}

Helen Vendler née Hennessy (1933–2024) was a professor of English at Boston, Cornell, Harvard and other universities. Her academic focus was the critical analysis of poetry and she studied poets from Shakespeare and George Herbert to modern poets such as Wallace Stevens and Seamus Heaney. Her technique was close reading which she preferred to describe as "reading from the point of view of a writer".

She reviewed poetry regularly for periodicals including ''The New Yorker'' and ''The New York Review of Books''. She was also a regular judge for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize and so she was influential in determining the reputation and success of other writers. Provided by Wikipedia