Christopher Merrill


Christopher Merrill 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
  • Fevers & Tides
  • Watch Fire
  • Brilliant Water
  • Seven Poets, Four Days, One Book
  • Boat
  • Necessities
  • After the Fact: Scripts & Postscripts - in collaboration with Marvin Bell

Nonfiction

  • The Grass of Another Country: A Journey Through the World of Soccer
  • The Old Bridge: The Third Balkan War and the Age of the Refugee
  • Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars
  • Journey to the Holy Mountain: Meditations on Mount Athos - also published as Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain
  • Cultural Diplomacy: The Linchpin of Public Diplomacy - Report of the Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State
  • The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expediation, War
  • ''Self-Portrait with Dogwood''

Translation

Collections and anthologies

Translated works

  • Christopher Merrill: Sajak sajak - translated into Malay
  • Why the Grass Whispered Again: Selected Poems - translated into Arabic
  • Christopher Merrill: Notwendigkeiten. Gedichte. translated into German. edition pen Löcker Verlag, Wien 2014, ISBN 978-3-85409-736-5.

Awards, fellowships, and prizes