{{short description|American poet}} {{About|the poet|the businessman|Christopher Merrill (businessman)}} {{Multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=June 2020}} {{More footnotes needed|date=June 2020}} }} {{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc. --> | name = Christopher Merrill | image = Christopher merrill 065562.JPG | image_size = | alt = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1957|2|24}} | birth_place = | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|Year|Month|Day|Year|Month|Day}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Director, International Writing Program, the University of Iowa | language = English | nationality = American | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = Middlebury College, University of Washington | period = | genre = poetry, non-fiction, journalism, translations | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | portaldisp = }}
'''Christopher Merrill''' (born February 24, 1957) is an American poet, essayist, journalist and translator. Currently, he serves as director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He led the initiative that resulted in the selection of Iowa City as a UNESCO City of Literature, a part of the Creative Cities Network. In 2011, he was appointed to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO.
== Life and career == Christopher Merrill was born in western Massachusetts and raised in New Jersey. He did his undergraduate work at Middlebury College and his graduate degree at the University of Washington. He has published six collections of poetry, including ''Watch Fire'', for which he received the Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets. He has also published translations, several edited volumes, and six books of nonfiction. His work has been translated into nearly 40 languages, and his journalism appears in many publications. For 10 years he was the book critic for the daily radio news program The World. Merrill's honors include a Chevalier from the French government in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He held the William H. Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters at the College of the Holy Cross before becoming the director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2000.
==Works== ===Poetry=== * ''Workbook'' (1988) * ''Fevers & Tides'' (1989) {{ISBN|9780913793107}} * ''Watch Fire'' (1995) {{ISBN|978-1-877727-43-6}} * ''Brilliant Water'' (2001) {{ISBN|978-1-893996-12-0}} * ''Seven Poets, Four Days, One Book'' (2009) * ''Boat'' (2013) * ''Necessities'' (2013) * ''After the Fact: Scripts & Postscripts'' (2016) - in collaboration with Marvin Bell
===Nonfiction=== * ''The Grass of Another Country: A Journey Through the World of Soccer'' (1994) * ''The Old Bridge: The Third Balkan War and the Age of the Refugee'' (1995) * ''Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars'' (2001) {{ISBN|978-0-7425-1686-1}} * ''Journey to the Holy Mountain: Meditations on Mount Athos'' (2004) - also published as ''Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain'' (2005) * ''Cultural Diplomacy: The Linchpin of Public Diplomacy'' (2005) - Report of the Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State * ''The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expediation, War'' (2011) * ''Self-Portrait with Dogwood'' (2017)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/self-portrait-with-dogwood/|title =Review of "Self-Portrait with Dogwood"|date =6 February 2017}}</ref>
===Translation=== * ''Anxious Moments'' by Aleš Debeljak (White Pine Press, 1995 {{ISBN|978-1-877727-35-1}} * ''The Four Questions of Melancholy: New and Selected Poems of Tomaž Šalamun'' by Tomaž Šalamun (White Pine Press, 2007) {{ISBN|978-1-877727-57-3}} * ''The City and the Child: Poems'' poems by Aleš Debeljak (1999) * ''Because of the Rain: A Selection of Korean Zen Poems'' (2006) * ''Even Birds Leave the World: Selected Poems of Ji-woo Hwang'' by Hwang Ji-u (2006) * ''Scale and Stairs: Selected Poems of Heeduk Ra'' by Na Huideok (2009) * ''Translucency: Selected Poems of Chankyung Sung'' by Seong Changyeong (2010) - with Kim Won-Chung * ''The Growth of a Shadow: Selected Poems of Taejoon Moon'' by Mun Tae-jun (2012) - with Kim Won-Chung * ''The Night of the Cat’s Return'' by Song Chanho (2015) - with Kim Won-Chung * ''If My Tongue Refuses to Remain in My Mouth'' by Kim Seonu (2018) - with Kim Won-Chung
=== Collections and anthologies === *{{cite book| title=Outcroppings| author=John McPhee| author-link=John McPhee| editor=Christopher Merrill| publisher=Peregrine Smith Books| year=1988| isbn= 978-0-87905-262-1 }} *{{cite book| title=The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets and Nature| publisher=Peregrine Smith Books| year= 1991| isbn= 978-0-87905-376-5| editor=Christopher Merrill }} *''What Will Suffice: Contemporary American Poets on the Art of Poetry From the Faraway Nearby: Georgia O'Keeffe as Icon'' (editor) (1995) *''The Way to the Salt Marsh: A John Hay Reader'' (editor) (1998) *{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/globalgamewriter00john| url-access=registration| page=[https://archive.org/details/globalgamewriter00john/page/70 70]| quote=Christopher Merrill.| chapter=A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball| title=The Global Game: Writers on Soccer|editor1=John Turnbull |editor2=Alon Raab |editor3=Thom Satterlee| publisher=University of Nebraska Press| year= 2008| isbn= 978-0-8032-1078-3 }} *{{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iiG_MOtag50C&q=Christopher+Merrill+poet&pg=PA233| chapter=Suite for Ashes and Strings| title=Under the rock umbrella: contemporary American poets, 1951-1977| editor=William J. Walsh| publisher=Mercer University Press| year= 2006| isbn= 978-0-88146-047-6 }} *''The New Symposium: Poets and Writers on What We Hold in Common'', edited with Natasa Durovicova. 2012. *''Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories from Around the World'', edited with Robert Shapard and James Thomas. 2015. *''The Same Gate: A Collection of Writings in the Spirit of Rumi'', edited with Natasa Durovicova. 2018.
=== Translated works === * ''Christopher Merrill: Sajak sajak (Poems)'' - translated into Malay (2006) * ''Why the Grass Whispered Again: Selected Poems'' - translated into Arabic (2007) * ''Christopher Merrill: Notwendigkeiten'' (Necessities). Gedichte. translated into German. edition pen (No. 20) Löcker Verlag, Wien 2014, ISBN 978-3-85409-736-5.
== Awards, fellowships, and prizes == * Chevalier de [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/mcc/Le-ministere/Le-ministre/Themes/Section-des-distinctions-honorifiques/L-ordre-ministeriel-des-arts-et-des-lettres l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres], French Ministry of Culture and Communications (2006)
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.christophermerrillbooks.com Christopher Merrill Web site] * [http://www.urhalpool.com/apr2009/index.php?lang=eng&pageid=chrismerrill_interview Interview, Urhalpool magazine, April 2009] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090304165244/http://iwp.uiowa.edu/about/CulturalDiplomacyReport.pdf ''Cultural Diplomacy: The Linchpin of Public Diplomacy'', Report of the Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, Christopher}} Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:American male poets Category:Middlebury College alumni Category:University of Washington alumni Category:International Writing Program alumni