Award-winning poet known for What Narcissism Means to Me, Sweet Ruin, and other works. He was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
He attended the University of Iowa and the University of Arizona. He published his debut poetry chapbook, A Change in Plans, in 1985.
He taught creative writing at the University of Houston.
He was born to a military physician stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was married to Kathleen Lee.
His literary development was influenced by the work of writer Frank O'Hara.