Karl Kirchwey was born in Boston and has lived in London, Lausanne and Rome. He has published seven books of poems, and has also translated poetry from French and Italian. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Parnassus: Poetry in Review, and elsewhere. He has received NEA, Guggenheim and Ingram Merrill grants as well as the Rome Prize in Literature and the Cato Prize for Poetry. He served for many years as Director of the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and from 2010-13 was Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome. He taught in and directed the Creative Writing Program at Bryn Mawr College from 2000-10, and is currently Professor of English and Creative Writing at Boston University.