William Marr

William W. Marr, PhD (traditional Chinese: 馬為義; simplified Chinese: 马为义; pinyin: ma wei yi; b. September 3, 1936) is a retired engineering researcher and poet.

Engineering research career

Marr was born in Taiwan and grew up in a small village in Guangdong, China. He was educated in Taiwan and came to the United States in 1961 as an engineering student. After receiving his master's degree in mechanical engineering from Marquette University in 1963, he worked for Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co. in Milwaukee, developing safety and control systems for nuclear power plants. He entered the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1967 and received his PhD degree in nuclear engineering two years later. In 1969, he joined Argonne National Laboratory as a researcher, working in the area of energy and environmental systems, including Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor safety research, and electric hybrid vehicle development. More than one hundred technical reports and articles had been published before his early retirement in 1996.

Poet and Translator

Besides his career in engineering research, Dr. Marr has devoted most of his leisure time to the translation and writing of modern poetry. Over the years, he has published thirteen books of poems in his native Chinese language, all under the pen name Fei Ma (traditional Chinese: 非馬; simplified Chinese: 非马), and several books of translations. He published his first book of poems in English, "Autumn Window", in 1995. The book was very well received. The "Chicago Tribune" and several local newspapers carried favorable reviews and he was hailed by one of the Chicago critics as one of the collectible Chicago poets. Regarded as one of the leading contemporary Chinese-language poets, his poems are included in over one hundred anthologies, ranging from literary textbooks to special collections and have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also edited several anthologies of Chinese and Taiwanese modern poetry and has received several awards from Taiwan for his poetry translation and writing. He is a former president of the Illinois State Poetry Society and a member of the Executive Committee of International Poet's Pen Club headquartered in Hong Kong.

Artist

Since 1990, he has engaged in artistic activities such as painting and sculpting, and has held several solo and group art exhibitions in art galleries and public libraries in the Chicago area. In 2006, some of his paintings were displayed on PublicBoard.com, a Website devoted to art and literature, for the celebration of the Chinese New Year. During the 2008 Olympics, he was invited to participate in an art show at an art museum in Beijing. He is a founding board member of the Chinese Artists' Association of North America.

Publications

*Autumn Window, Arbor Hill Press, Chicago, 1995; 2nd Edition, 1996
*Let the Feast Begin-- My Favorite English Poems, Bilingual, Bookman Publishing Co., Taipei, 1999
*Selected Poems of William Marr, Chinese-English Bilingual, The World Contemporary Poetry Series, The Milky Way Publishing Co., Hong Kong, 2003

References

*International Who's Who in Poetry 1974-75 (Fourth Edition, Ernest Kay Editor, Cambridge and London, England), 1974; 2003; 2005
*The Isle Full of Noises, Ed. Dominic Cheung, Columbia University Press, New York, 1987
*The Voice of the Poet, Chicago Tribune (Tempo Dupage), 1996.2.25
*The Nuclear Poet, Downers Grove Reporter, 1996.4.19
*Going 60 in Chicago -- 60Years of Poetry from The Poets Club of Chicago,ISBN#1-887312-04-8.
*International Who's Who in Poetry and Poets' Encyclopaedia, 9th Edition.; 2003
*International Authors and Writers Who's Who--16th Edition,1999; 17th Edition, 2001;2003;2005

External links

*An Interview with William Marr, by Alan Harris, http://www.poetrysky.com/interview.html
*The Art World of William Marr, http://wmarr9.home.comcast.net/bmz.htm