ChristopherMerrill
Director, International Writing Program216 McLean Street
Professor of EnglishIowa City, IA 52246
Shambaugh House(319) 354-8197 (home)
430 North Clinton Street(319) 504-0263 (mobile)
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242-2020
(319) 335-2609; fax (319) 335-3843
Personal
Born 24 February 1957
Northampton, MA
Education
1982M.A.University of Washington
1979B.A.Middlebury College
High honors in English. Cum laude.
Publications:books
Under contract: The Dogwood Tree, nonfiction. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2015.
Under contract:After the Fact: Scripts & Postscripts, a poetic collaboration with Marvin Bell.
Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2016.
In progress: Between the Tower and the Wall, poetry.
Flare, prose poetry.
Flash Fiction International, edited with Robert Shapard and James Thomas. New York: W. W.
Norton, 2015.
Book Wings: A Virtual Drama, edited with Ashley Davidson. Bloomington: Autumn Hill Books,
2014.
The Night of the Cat’s Return by Chanho Song, translated from the Korean with Won-Chung
Kim. Bloomington: Autumn Hill Books, 2014.
The Same Gate: A Poetic Exchange, edited with Natasa Durovicova. Bloomington: Autumn Hill
Books, 2014.
Boat, poetry. North Adams: Tupelo Press, 2013.
Necessities, prose poetry. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2013. Vienna: Austrian PEN, 2014.
The Growth of a Shadow: Selected Poems of Taejoon Moon, translated from the Korean with
Won-Chung Kim. Iowa City: Autumn Hill Books, 2012.
The New Symposium: Poets and Writers on What We Hold in Common, edited with Natasa
Durovicova. Iowa City: Autumn Hill Books, 2012.
The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War, nonfiction. Minneapolis: Milkweed
Editions, 2011.
Translucency: Selected Poems of Chankyung Sung, translated from the Korean with Won-Chung
Kim. Paramus: Homa & Sekey, 2010.
Tatlag, Turleg, selected poems translated into Mongolian by Ayurzana. Ulan Bator: Munkhiin
uleg, 2010.
Seven Poets, Four Days, One Book, collaborative poem, with Marvin Bell, István László Geher,
Ksenia Golubovich, Simone Inguanez, Christopher Merrill, Tomaž Šalamun, and Dean
Young, edited and with an introduction. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2009.
Scale and Stairs: Selected Poems of Heeduk Ra, translated from the Korean with Won-Chung
Kim. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2009.
Why the Grass Whispered Again: Selected Poems, translated into Arabic by Mohammad Rishah.
Ramallah: Palestinian House of Poetry, 2007. Reprinted at 2008.
Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain, nonfiction. New York: Random House, 2005; London: HarperCollins UK, 2004 (under the title Journey to the Holy
Mountain: Meditations on Mount Athos); Athens: Metaixmio, 2005; Prague: Alman,
forthcoming; Seoul: Minumsa, 2010.; Sofia: Omofor, forthcoming.
Sajak sajak, selected poems translated into Malay by Eddin Khoo. Kuala Lumpur: Kala Press,
2006.
Even Birds Leave the World: Selected Poems of Ji-woo Hwang, translated from the Korean with
Won-Chung Kim. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2006.
Because of the Rain: A Selection of Korean Zen Poems, translated from the Korean with Won-
Chung Kim. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2006.
Brilliant Water, poetry. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2001.
Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars, nonfiction. Boulder: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers, 1999. Paperback: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001.
Bucharest: Paralela 45, 2002; Ljubljana: Cankarjeva zalozba, 2001.
The City and the Child, by Aleš Debeljak, translated from the Slovenian with the author. Buffalo:
White Pine Press, 1999. Blesok Publishing, 2003.
The Way to the Salt Marsh: A John Hay Reader, edited and with an introduction. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1998.
TheFourQuestionsofMelancholy: New and SelectedPoemsofTomažŠalamun, edited and with an introduction. Fredonia: White Pine Press, 1996.
TheOldBridge: TheThirdBalkanWarandtheAgeoftheRefugee, nonfiction. St. Paul: Milkweed Editions, 1995.
WhatWillSuffice: ContemporaryAmericanPoetsontheArtofPoetry, an anthology edited with Christopher Buckley. Layton: Peregrine Smith Books, 1995.
WatchFire (including Workbook, Fevers &Tides, and Luck), poetry. Fredonia: White Pine
Press, 1994.
AnxiousMoments, by Aleš Debeljak, translated from the Slovenian with the author. Fredonia:
White Pine Press, 1994.
TheGrassofAnotherCountry: A JourneyThroughtheWorldofSoccer, nonfiction. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993. Paperback: Henry Holt and Company, 1994.
FromtheFarawayNearby: GeorgiaO’KeeffeasIcon, edited with Ellen Bradbury. The
Radcliffe Biography Series. Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1992. Paperback: Addison
Wesley, 1993. Reissued by the University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
TheForgottenLanguage: ContemporaryPoetsandNature, an anthology edited and with an introduction. Layton: Peregrine Smith Books, 1991.
Fevers & Tides, poetry. Santa Fe: Teal Press, 1989.
Outcroppings, an edited selection of John McPhee’s writings on the West. Layton: Peregrine Smith Books, 1988.
Workbook, poetry. Santa Fe: Teal Press, 1988.
Publications: chapbooks and other
Town Stitched by River: Irish Writers at the International Writing Program, edited with Alan
Hayes. Dublin and Iowa City: Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and the International
Writing Program, 2014.
Landmarks: Two Lines World Writing in Translation, edited with Susan Bernofsky. San
Francisco: Center for the Art of Translation, 2013.
Translations from the Chinese, with writings by Kyle Dargan, Matt Hart, Christopher Merrill,
Amanda Nadelberg, Kiki Petrosino, and Vu Tran. Cincinnati: Forklift, Ink, 2011.
Trust Me, I’m an Expert: Talking Culture Inside and Out, an edited collection of essays.
Washington and Iowa City: BritishCouncil/Autumn Hill Books, 2010.
Cultural Diplomacy: The Linchpin of Public Diplomacy, Report of the Advisory Committee on
Cultural Diplomacy, Washington: U.S. Department of State, September 2005.
TheForestofSpeakingTrees: AnEssayonPoetry, nonfiction. Fredonia: White Pine Press, 1996.
YourFinalPleasure: AnEssayonReading, nonfiction. Fredonia: White Pine Press, 1996.
Constellations, by André Breton, translated from the French with Jeanie Puleston Fleming. Santa
Fe: Tyuonyi 8, 1990.
SlowDownConstruction, by André Breton, René Char, and Paul Éluard, translated from the
French with Jeanie Puleston Fleming). Philadelphia: TheAmericanPoetryReview
(special supplement), May/June1991.
Publications:poems, translations, fictions, essays, articles
“Afghanistan,” Prairie Schooner, forthcoming.
“After Great Pain: Writing September 11th” (essay), Nineteenth-Century Literature in English, edited by Yangsoon Kim. Seoul: Korea University, 2003. Reprinted in An Americanist in Sarajevo, edited by Srebren Dizdar. Sarajevo: Biblioteka Posebna izdanja, kniga7/
Special Editions, Volume 7, 2004.
“After You” (essay), Tin House, Spring 2002. Reprinted in Cooking and Stealing: The Tin House
Nonfiction Reader. New York: Tin House Books/Bloomsbury, 2004.
“After the Workshop,” The Iowa Review, forthcoming.
Afterward to The Battle of Kosovo, translated by John Matthias and Vladeta Vuckovic. Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1999.
Afterward to China Ink: The Changing Face of Chinese Journalism, by Judy Polumbaum.
Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008.
Afterward to The Shape of Light by James Wright. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2007.
“again the roads are silent, dark peace,” by Tomaz Šalamun (translated from the Slovenian with the author), Black Warrior Review, Spring/Summer 2007.
“Against Imperialism,” Post Road 26, 2013.
“Against Uncertainty,” Post Road 26, 2013.
“Alphabet,” Transom 3, Spring 2012.
“America? A world of swindling possibilities...,” Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics, Fall
2006. Reprinted at Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry,
“All Hallows Eve,” Cyphers, Spring 2008. Reprinted in Breaking the Jaws of Silence: Sixty
American Poets Speak to the World, edited by Sholeh Wolpé. Fayetteville, AK:
University of Arkansas Press, 2013.
‘l’Ancien Régime,” Alaska Quarterly Review, Spring 2008.
“Angkor,” The Fiddlehead, forthcoming.
“Another Time: A Journey to Kosovo” (essay), LeftBank 5, 1993.
“Ark,” tin lustre mobile, August 2004.
“Arrival in Saint-Nazaire,” by Tomaž Šalamun (translated from the Slovenian with the author), Trafika 7, Fall 1999.
“An Athlete’s Ordeal” (article), Sports Illustrated, October 18, 1993.
“Aztec Two-Step,” Denver Quarterly, Summer 2014.
“Bassetting” (short story), Chimera Review, Winter 2003.
“Beauty and the Beast” (essay), TheAntiochReview, Spring 1994.
“Because,” ThePushcartPrizeXV: BestoftheSmallPresses, edited by Bill Henderson.
Yonkers: The Pushcart Press, 1990. Reprinted in Krasnogruda 8;Poets of the New
Century, edited by Rick Higgerson and Roger Weingarten. Boston: David R. Godine, 2001; and A Mingling of Waters: A Commemorative Program, edited by Catherine Fletcher. Kolkata: Supernova P & D, 2008.
“The Bees,” Poemsfora SmallPlanet, edited by Robert Pack and Jay Parini. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1993.
“Before the Mirror” (essay), Women, Gender, and Human Rights: A Global Perspective, edited by Marjorie Agosin. Rutgers: Rutgers University Press, 2001.
“Between,” Atlas/@las, Spring 2006.
“Bill,” Blues for Bill: A Tribute to William Matthews, edited by Kurt Brown, Meg Kearney, Donna Resi, and Estha Weiner. Akron: University of Akron Press, 2005. Reprinted in
Under the Rock Umbrella: Contemporary American Poets from 1951-1977, edited by
William Walsh. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2006.
“Black,” The Wolf, Spring 2012. Reprinted in The Wolf: A Decade, 2012.
“The blacksmith speaks in tongues...,” The Prose Poem: An International Journal, Volume 8. Reprinted in The Best of the Prose Poem: An International Journal, 2000.
“Blame it on the scimitars...,” jubilat 1, Spring 2000.
“Book Wings” (essay), Theatre, Design & Technology, Winter 2104.
“A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball,” PoetryNorthwest, Summer 1982. Reprinted in Motion: American Sports Poems, edited by Noah Blaustein, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001; The Poetry of Men’s Lives: An International Anthology, edited by Fred
Moramarco and Al Zolynas, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2003; The Global
Game: Writers on Soccer, edited by Alon Raab, Thomas Satterlee, and John Turnball,
Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2007; Athletic Words: Sport Poems
and Poetic Writings, edited by Scott Melville, Kingsport: NF Publishing, 2008; The Scent
of These Armpits, edited and annotated by Scott Melville, 2007; A Mingling of Waters: A
Commemorative Program, edited by Catherine Fletcher. Kolkata: Supernova P& D,
2008; and Kora Pnimit, edited by Gilad Meiri. Tel Aviv: Media41 Ltd., 2009.
“Breach”, Conversations Across Borders, May 2013.
“Breath,” MississippiReview, Fall 1989.
“Brewster Ghiselin” (essay), PoetryPilot, November 1990.
“The Bridge,” Ecotone, 2013.
“Bridging the East-West Divide” (essay), National Catholic Reporter, Vol. 41, No. 38. Reprinted
at September 2, 2005.
“Bright Sadness” (essay), Dislocate, Spring 2006.
“Brown vs. Board of Education,” The Georgia Review, Winter 2014.
“Butler in America” (essay), Irish Pages, Fall 2002. Reprinted in Unfinished Ireland, edited by Chris Agee. Belfast: Irish Pages, 2002.
“Ceremony,” Green Mountain Review, Volume XXIII, No. 1, 2010.
“Chance Encounters: On Rebecca Salsbury James’ EarthandWater” (essay), ElPalacio, Fall 1992.
“Chew on This” (essay), The Georgia Review Contributors Bookshelves,
January 17, 2014.
“Childhood,” Kingfisher, Fall 1987.
“Children’s Froth, Children’s Clothing,” by Tomaž Šalamun (translated with the author), Crowd, 2004.
“A Child Unkennelled: On The Dream Songs, (essay-review), Los Angeles Review of Books,
November 11, 2014.
“The Cistern,” #NewWriting,
November 10, 2011.
“The City and the Child,” by Aleš Debeljak (translated with the author), Forbidden Bread, edited
by Erica Johnson Debeljak: North Atlantic Books, 2009.
“Cloistered in fire...,” The Prose Poem: An International Journal, Volume 8, 1999. Reprinted in The Best of the Prose Poem: An International Journal, 2000.
“Clockwise” (fiction), TheFictionReview, Winter 1988.
“Coastlines” (one section of a long poem), TheJournal, Fall 1991.
“The Concert,” Transom 3, Spring 2012.
“Concert,” DenverQuarterly, Fall 1987.
“Conditional,” Cyphers, Spring 2008.
“Conference,” Ecotone, 2013.
‘Combs Hollow,” The Georgia Review, Winter 2014.
“Cops and Robbers” by S. Diwakar (translated from the Kannada with the author), The Little Magazine, Spring 2003.
“Cotillions,” Sixty Years of American Poetry: Celebrating the Anniversary of the Academy of American Poets. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1996.
“The Courts of the Sun: Homage to Brewster Ghiselin” (essay), PoetryEast 34, Fall 1992.
“The Critical Point,” december, Vol. 25.2 (Fall/Winter 2014).
“The Crucial Recrystallizing: A Note on James Merrill” (essay), Verse, Fall 1995.
“Cultural Diplomacy’s ‘Strange Truths’” (essay), Iowa Now, June 17, 2013,
“The Dancer,” Rhino, Fall 1987.
“Day Lilies: Instructions and an Elegy,” Poemsfora SmallPlanet, edited by Robert Pack and
Jay Parini. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1993.
“Debating Rostrum,” by Alain Lance (translated from the French with Jeanie Puleston Fleming). Tyuonyi 9/10, 1991.
“Deepening the Stream: A Profile of Frederick Turner,” ElPalacio, Fall 1994. Reprinted in
SIRS Knowledge Source (ProQuest)
“Departures and Arrivals: A Profile of W. S. Merwin,” Poets and Writers, July/August 2005.
Reprinted in SIRS Knowledge Source (ProQuest)
“Dismal Harmony” (essay), Third Coast, Fall 2005. Reprinted at Poetry Daily,
February 14, 2006.
“The Diver,” OxfordMagazine, Spring/Summer 1988. Reprinted in Motion: American Sports Poems, edited by Noah Blaustein. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001.
“Divine Bird Passing,” by André Breton (translated from the French with Jeanie Puleston Fleming). MidnightLamp, Spring 1989. Reprinted in Tyuonyi 8, 1990.
“Dog Days in Vermont,” Seneca Review, Fall 1999.
“Dog, Howling,” PoetryWales, Spring 1989.
“The Dolly Zoom,” The Georgia Review, forthcoming.
“A Door Opens,” by Heeduk Ra (translated with Won-Chung Kim), Circumference, Issue 6.
Reprinted in Full Tilt: a journal of east-Asian poetry, translation and the arts,
Summer 2008
“Doppelganger,” CincinnatiPoetryReview, Fall 1988. Reprinted in Poets of the New Century, edited by Rick Higgerson and Roger Weingarten. Boston: David R. Godine, 2001.
Reprinted in Under the Rock Umbrella: Contemporary American Poets from 1951-1977,
edited by William Walsh. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2006.
“Double Down on Diplomacy” (op-ed), with Curtis S. Chin, William Smullen III, and Charles
Webb, The Huffington Post, October 29, 2012,
“Double Vision: The ‘Other’ Twin Towers” (excerpt from The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony,
Expedition, War), Granta, 12 September 2011.
“Doublings: On Rebecca Salsbury James’ Untitled(ElkToothandMagnolia)” (essay), El Palacio, Fall 1992.
“Early Poems,” Chelsea, Spring 1989.
“Earth. Red earth...,” by Aleš Debeljak (translated from the Slovenian with the author), Redlands Review, 1991.
“Effluent,” The Georgia Review, forthcoming.
Eight poems by Buland al-Haydari (translated from the Arabic with Hussein Kadhim), Modern Poetry in Translation, Winter 2003.
Eight prose poems by Paul Celan (translated from the Romanian with Magda Carneci), The Cream City Review, Volume 25, Numbers 1 & 2, Summer 2001.
Entry for Paul Engle in The Iowa Biographical Dictionary, edited by David Hudson, Loren
Horton, and Marvin Bergman. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2009.
“Erosion,” Pivot, 1990. Reprinted in Outsiders: Poems about Rebels, Exiles, and Renegades, edited by Laure-Anne Bosselaar. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1999.
“Everybody was Innocent: On Writing and War” (essay), AmericanPoetryReview, January/February,1996.
“Every building from the century...,” The Prose Poem: An International Journal, Volume 8, 1999. Reprinted in The Best of the Prose Poem: An International Journal, 2000.
“Every Hell Is Different: Notes on War Writing,” WritingCreative Nonfiction, edited by Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard. Alexandria: Associated Writing Programs (AWP)/ Story Press (F & W Publications), 2001.
“Excavations: A Note on Poetics” (essay), Tyuonyi 6/7, 1989.
Excerpt from The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War in Defunct: A Literary
Repository for the Ages, Volume III, Issue II, Fall 2012.
Excerpt from The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War in Notre Dame Review # 30,
Summer 2010.
Excerpt from Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain in mediterranean poetry,
Winter 2013,
Excerpt from Things of the Hidden God: Journeys to the Holy Mountain in The Penelopeia
Project, Spring 2003.
“Fairy Tale,” The Iowa Review, forthcoming.
“Fall and Recovery,” Rattapallax, Spring 2012.
“Falling Persimmons,” by Byungu Chon (translated from the Korean with Won-Chung Kim),
Words Without Borders, November 2005. Reprinted in Literature from the Axis of Evil:
Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Other Enemy Nations, edited by Susan Harris
and Blake Radcliffe. New York: The New Press, 2006
“The Fellowship of the Craft,” Tin House, Winter 2001.
“The Fence,” TheParisReview, Spring 1993. Reprinted in A Mingling of Waters: A
Commemorative Program, edited by Catherine Fletcher. Kolkata: Supernova P & D,
2008.
“Feverish,” december, Vol. 25.2 (Fall/Winter 2014).
“Fictions and masks and swastikas...,” Notre Dame Review, Spring 2000.
“A Fierce Astonishment: John Hay at Eighty” (profile), Orion Magazine, Autumn 1995.
Fifteen prose poems, American Poetry Review, March/April 2001.
“Figures in the Night Guided by Phosphorescent Snail Tracks,” by André Breton (translated
from the French with Jeanie Puleston Fleming), MidnightLamp, Spring 1989. Reprinted
in Tyuonyi 8, 1990.
“Final Instructions,” Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, November 1, 2012.
“The Fishing Jacket,” NewVirginiaReview, Volume 6, 1988.
Five Poems by Aleš Debeljak (translated from the Slovenian with the author), Verse, Spring
1999. Reprinted in Verse, Volume 21, Numbers 1-3.
Five Poems by Heeduk Ra (translated from the Korean with Won-Chung Kim), Words Without
Borders, November 2007.
Five Poems by Tomaž Šalamun (translated from the Slovenian with the author), tin luster
mobile, August 2004.
Five Poems by Tomaž Šalamun (translated from the Slovenian with the author), Trafika, Fall 1995.
Five Poems by Tomaž Šalamun (translated from the Slovenian with the author), Verse, Fall
1996. Reprinted in Verse, Volume 21, Numbers 1-3.
Five Poems by Goran Simic (translated from the Bosnian with Amela Simic), The Prose Poem: An International Journal, Volume 5, 1996. “Medals” and “War Mice” were reprinted in The Best of the Prose Poem: An International Journal, 2000.
“Flatfish” by Taejoon Moon (translated from the Korean with Won-Chung Kim), Korea
Literature Translation Institute Newsletter, Winter 2010.
‘Fodder,” The Georgia Review, Winter 2014.
‘The Folded Lie” (essay), Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, Volume 18, Number 4,
October-December 2006.
“The Forms of American Nature Poetry” (essay), AmericanNatureWriters, edited by John
Elder. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1996.
“Forever on the Road” (essay), Portland, Fall 1995.
Forty poems from Anxious Moments and The City and the Child by Aleš Debeljak (translated
from the Slovenian with the author), reprinted inWithout Amnesia: New and Selected Poems by Aleš Debeljak, edited by AndrewZawacki. (New York: Persea Books, 2011.)
Foreword to The Grace of Incorruption: The Selected Essays of Donald Sheehan on Orthodox
Faith and Poetics, edited by Xenia Sheehan. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2015.
Foreword to Heart of Darkness: Selected Poems of Ferida Durakovic, translated by Amela Simic and Zoran Mutic, and edited by Greg Simon. Fredonia: White Pine Press, 1998.
Foreword to Painting with O’Keeffe, by John Poling. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1999.
Foreword to The Psalms of David, translated from the Septuagint Greek by Donald Sheehan and