Mark Strand (1934–2014) was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Blizzard of One (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1999. His earlier collections include Reasons for Moving (Atheneum, 1968) and Darker (Atheneum, 1970). He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1990 to 1991. His honors include a MacArthur Fellowship and the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. He taught at the University of Chicago and other institutions.
Who was your "gateway poet," the poet whose first book or poem made you want to write?
Mark Strand. In my freshmen year of college, we were assigned Contemporary American Poetry, edited by A. Poulin for two of my classes, which meant I saved money, and I read the whole thing. When we got to Mark Strand's "Eating Poetry," I had found the voice that cracked open poetry for me.