American poet and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient whose poetry collections include Never-Ending Birds, Changeable Thunder, and The Truth about Small Towns. He also published several works of literary criticism.
He received degrees from Central Missouri State University and the University of Utah before teaching at Warren Wilson College and Denison University.
He became poetry editor of The Kenyon Review after moving to Granville, Ohio.
He was born in Maine and raised in Missouri.
He was born in the same year as fellow American poet Kim Addonizio.