Christopher Merrill

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 Comission for UNESCO.

Life and career

He was educated at Middlebury College and the University of Washington. He has published four 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 four books of nonfiction. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages, and his journalism appears in many publications. For ten years he was the book critic for the daily radio news program The World. He has held the William H. Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters at the College of the Holy Cross.

Works

Poetry

• Workbook (1988)
• Fevers & Tides (1989)
• Watch Fire. White Pine Press. 1995. ISBN 9781877727436. http://books.google.com/books?id=fddiAbE8JFEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Christopher+Merrill&lr=&ei=ZksAS5KgGaa2NPLR4IoP#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Brilliant Water. White Pine Press. 2001. ISBN 9781893996120. http://books.google.com/books?id=XVZuO6Mt3kAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Christopher+Merrill&ei=SEgAS7jnBI2-MvOytIUP#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Seven Poets, Four Days, One Book (Trinity University Press, 2009).

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. Rowman & Littlefield. 2001. ISBN 9780742516861. http://books.google.com/books?id=iQ3qG1s0LSgC&pg=PP1&dq=Christopher+Merrill&ei=SEgAS7jnBI2-MvOytIUP#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain (2004)
• Cultural Diplomacy: The Linchpin of Public Diplomacy, Report of the Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State (2005)
• The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expediation, War (October, 2011)

Translation

• Aleš Debeljak (1995). Anxious Moments. Translator Christopher Merrill. White Pine Press. ISBN 9781877727351. 
• Tomaž Šalamun (2007). The Four Questions of Melancholy: New and Selected Poems of Tomaž Šalamun. Translator Christopher Merrill. White Pine Press. ISBN 9781877727573. http://books.google.com/books?id=w1Lt7c5OXyAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Christopher+Merrill&ei=SEgAS7jnBI2-MvOytIUP#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• The City and the Child, 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 (2006)
• Scale and Stairs: Selected Poems of Heeduk Ra (2009)
• Translucency: Selected Poems of Chankyung Sung, translated from the Korean with Won-Chung Kim. (2010)

Collections and anthologies

• John McPhee (1988). Christopher Merrill. ed. Outcroppings. Peregrine Smith Books. ISBN 9780879052621. 
• Christopher Merrill, ed (1991). The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets and Nature. Peregrine Smith Books. ISBN 9780879053765. 
• 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)
• John Turnbull, Alon Raab, Thom Satterlee, ed (2008). "A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball". The Global Game: Writers on Soccer. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803210783. http://books.google.com/books?id=k5zfUEx5AoEC&pg=PA70&dq=Christopher+Merrill&ei=SEgAS7jnBI2-MvOytIUP#v=onepage&q=Christopher%20Merrill&f=false. 
• William J. Walsh, ed (2006). "Suite for Ashes and Strings". Under the rock umbrella: contemporary American poets, 1951-1977. Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780881460476. http://books.google.com/books?id=iiG_MOtag50C&pg=PA233&dq=Christopher+Merrill+poet&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=C0wAS8_UBYm2NZzxwUI#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 

Translated works

• Christopher Merrill: Sajak sajak (Poems), translated into Malay (2006)
• Why the Grass Whispered Again: Selected Poems, translated into Arabic (2007)

Awards, fellowships, and prizes

• Sherman Brown Neff Fellowship, University of Utah (1986–1987)
• John Ciardi Fellow in Poetry, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (1989)
• Pushcart Prize XV in Poetry (1990)
• Editors’ Award in Poetry, Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry & Prose (1990)
• Ingram Merrill Foundation Award in Poetry (1991)
• Readers’ Choice Award in Poetry, Prairie Schooner (1992)
• The Academy of American Poets Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Award (1993)
• Translation Award, Slovenian Ministry of Culture (1997)
• Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize (for The Four Questions of Melancholy: New and Selected Poems by Tomaž Šalamun (editor)) (1997)
• Writers Association of Bosnia-Herzegovina Annual Literary Award, The Bosnian Stecak (2001)
• Translation Awards, Korean Literature Translation Institute (2003, 2004, 2006)
• Kostas Kyriazis Foundation Honorary International Literary Prize (2005)
• Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, French Ministry of Culture and Communications (2006)

External links

• Christopher Merrill Web site
• Interview, Urhalpool magazine, April 2009
• Cultural Diplomacy: The Linchpin of Public Diplomacy, Report of the Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State

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Name	Merrill, Christopher
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Date of birth	February 24, 1957
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