Literary obituaries: February 28, 2026

Here are the literary deaths that either occurred recently or popped into the news recently, starting with the most distant and all coming from The New York Times.

• Rose Lesniak, a poet known both for her own work and for heckling certain other poets like Allen Ginsberg, died February 1 at age seventy.

• Teresa de Lauretis, an academic who coined the phrase "queer theory," died February 3 at age eighty-seven. 

• Ann Godoff, an editor and publisher who counted E.L. Doctorow, Thomas Pynchon, Tom Brokaw, Salman Rushdie, and Zadie Smith among her many clients, died February 24 at age seventy-six.